


A Call To Arms

by myracingthoughts



Series: Alone's The Only Way I've Ever Known [3]
Category: Avengers (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Hawkeye (Comics), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Injury, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, SHIELD, Slow Burn, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:27:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 36,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23843722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myracingthoughts/pseuds/myracingthoughts
Summary: [Complete]Sequel to They Looked Like Strong Hands.Danielle Fisher finds herself back at the Triskelion with more questions than answers, and more enemies than friends. Will she be able to get to the bottom of things without losing herself in the process?Part 3 of a larger series.
Relationships: Avengers Team & Original Female Character(s), Clint Barton & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Alone's The Only Way I've Ever Known [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683040
Comments: 27
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ready to go back in time?

** May 26, 2011 **

“Fisher, you just gonna stand there and take that or are you going to dodge?”

Dani grimaced, panting as she tried to keep her feet moving against the mat. Sweat dripped down her back, pooling in her shirt’s fabric as she stared at her opponent. They weren’t going easy on her, that was for sure. There was fire behind those green eyes as Rumlow barked from the front of the room.

“Keep your back arm up,” the redhead shot at her, to her surprise. “Watch my shoulders, and you’ll see the strikes coming.”

Dani nodded, observing for her next moves. She managed to duck and dodge out of the way, rewarded with a harrumph from drill sergeant Rumlow as he paced the room. Eventually, he called for an end to the session, having picked off a couple of team members who’d need to be trained further.

Dani was thankful she wasn’t one of them.

Using her teeth to unlatch her hand wraps, she paced a little while unravelling. Natasha observed her from the corner of her eyes, paying close attention to her body language. She was used to it; it was the only kind of look she’d get from field agents as a newbie. It made sense for them to try to size her up.

“Rumlow’s a bit of a dick, even to his own team,” she said quietly as soon as he was out of earshot, likely sensing her frustration with the session. “Don’t take it personally. You’re getting there.”

“Thanks,” she said, offering a hand. “I’m Dani, the new physical therapist.”

“Oh, a doctor,” she said with a raised eyebrow before shaking her hand. “I’m Natasha, I mostly do fieldwork. We’ll probably see a lot of each other — actually, you’ll probably see my partner a lot,” she said with a smirk.

“Let me guess, human punching bag?” The doctor offered with a smile.

“The one and only,” Natasha grinned back. “Clint Barton. His medical file is probably a mile long.”

“Oh, that’s what that novel was,” Dani mused jokingly. “Thanks for the help, by the way. This is a little out of my element.”

“Yeah, I’d imagine most of the med team had a hard time with the combat annuals. But, you never know when you have to defend yourself.”

It was something she really hadn’t considered before she’d joined SHIELD, but as an intelligence agency, everything was a risk. As secure as HQ was, it was an easy target should anyone choose to attack. If someone did breach the fortress, it made sense to train as many people as possible to defend it.

“Another stray, Nat?”

A gruff voice cut through the chatter in the practice room, making Dani turn her head towards the sound.

“Speak of the devil.  _ Dr. _ Fisher,” the redhead placed some emphasis on her title as if to wisen up the blonde to her right, “meet Clint Barton.”

Hair stuck up in all directions like he’d just woken up from a nap, his whole face read tired. Dani was pretty sure there was a mark on his face from sleeping too long on an uneven surface. At Natasha’s words, his eyebrows quickly cycled from skepticism to surprise to bashfulness.

Watching as his ears tinged red, Dani smiled politely and extended her hand.

“Nice to meet you,” she said as he hesitantly shook it. “And really, Dani’s fine.”

He took a beat too long to reply, spending a little too much time staring at Dani’s face, but eventually, he got there.

“Likewise,” he said with a grin before a sense of realization washed over his face. “I meant about the nice to meet you part. I’m Clint.”

Natasha was holding back a laugh behind her fist in the corner of her vision, but Dani just nodded her head and pretended she didn’t notice the flub. He slyly nudged the redhead with his elbow before they dove into what looked to be a silent conversation through expressive eyes. Dani’s eyebrow lifted in confusion at the pair’s exchange.

If these two weren’t a couple outside these walls, they were definitely work spouses.

“Has anyone shown you the rest of the facilities yet?” Natasha asked as she gave Clint one last shove with her elbow. “Clint knows his way around pretty well.”

Clint opened his mouth as if he was about to argue with her, shooting his partner a look, but quickly shut it as she shot him one back. Dani had to stifle a giggle.

“Y-yeah, I can show you around if you want?” His voice sounded a little more convincing by the end of the sentence.

His nerves were endearing, and Dani found herself drawn into his lopsided smile. As guilty as she felt taking advantage of the flustered blond, it was nice to know that not everyone at the agency was as hard and cold as Rumlow.

She returned it, “That’d be great.”

He waited for her outside of the change rooms as she got back into her work clothes. Wide blue eyes surveyed her white coat closely as they walked toward the entrance hall. It was quieter now, just a few agents pacing the halls looking like they had somewhere important to be.

“So, maybe I’m an asshole, but you look really young for a doctor,” Clint broke the silent walk with a bashful smile.

She barked out a laugh, “I’m a physiotherapist, not an MD.” She added, “And you’re not an asshole, don’t worry. I should have corrected Natasha.”

He whistled, looking up at the ceiling with a toothy grin, “We are going to be  _ great _ friends.”

“Natasha might have mentioned you’re a regular.”

There was that blush again.

“Yeah, well,” he stumbled a little before finding his voice again. “Not all of us were trained by the Russians.”

They walked around the compound, Clint pointing out different rooms, services and offerings in the Triskelion. He added his sarcastic notes, giving a couple of tips on who not to piss off and what she could get away with.

She could sense backstories to each of his tips, drawing her in and making her smile.

She couldn’t quite figure him out. As goofy and aloof as he played, there was no way the intense redhead would put up with him like that in the field. There were moments where he’d slip, give a hard look to a passing STRIKE team member or trail off about a room as he surveyed it.

Little clues in his body language told her he’d been in this world a long time.

“Are you from D.C.?” she asked, trying to get more out of him.

Hands in his pockets, she saw his expression soften a bit, “Nah, from the middle of nowhere, Iowa. You?”

“Uh, I’m not really from anywhere,” she chuckled. “A dozen states in a decade will do that to you.”

That seemed to catch his attention as his head whipped around to look at her.

“Military?”

She was used to that assumption but shook her head, “Nah, mom had a hard time finding work, so we moved a lot.”

“Ever in D.C.?” He was paced backwards as he talked to her now, holding eye contact.

Passing through a hallway of floor to ceiling windows, the sun was high in the sky overlooking the city. She could see groups of team members in kits doing drills below on the ground. The campus was beautiful, overlooking the water with just enough green space not to look too clinical.

“No, this is my first time living here,” she said as she looked out.

He followed her gaze, breaking a brief moment of silence.

“What are you doing for lunch?”

The question seemed a little out of place. It made Dani snap her head to consider him, still watching the group training below.

She looked at him, quizzically, “Honestly, no clue.”

He clapped his hands together, looking back at the brunette with a decisive look.

“Well, that settles it. I’ll show you Nat and my favourite spot,” he said with a grin. “Down for tacos?”

Dani grinned. It looked like they were going to be good friends, indeed.

“Always.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tags start coming into play this chapter and beyond.

** March 4, 2013 **

Walking into the Triskelion at 8 AM was like Grand Central at rush hour. The massive halls were full of people, agents, staff, with places to be and things to do. A colony of bees, buzz intact, making secrets instead of honey.

It was oddly alluring, the thrill of being in the center of the action, especially for Dani. It was her first day back to headquarters in almost a year, and it felt more like a homecoming than she thought it would.

“Dr. Fisher, welcome back.”

Her head whipped around to find her boss waiting for her just in front of the security turnstiles. Dani took a moment to feel for her security badge, making sure she hadn’t forgotten it at home.

“Agent Hill,” Dani returned, offering a strained smile to her boss. “It’s good to be back.”

She got a modest upturn of her lips in return, “How are you finding your accommodations?”

The previous week had been a transition for the doctor, moving her minimal belongings into a new apartment. SHIELD had agreed to house her off-site, a request she made to hopefully encourage a work-life balance. The apartment was small, the building was on the older side, but Dani didn’t need much. It was a bright space, lots of windows and light, and the neighbourhood was full of different cultures, cuisines and businesses.

With a week off to move and get herself situated, she even managed to add some personal touches to the space. It felt like a new beginning, one that she was eager to get started. Especially since she was starting to go a little stir crazy with nothing to do but move in.

“Great. I mean, I can’t roll out of bed and take an elevator to the office anymore, but the apartment is beautiful,” she tried to joke, but the typically stone-faced agent wasn’t having it.

They were back to business before Dani could make another quip. Hill handed her a stack of paperwork, and Dani could only smile and accept it.

It was nice to be back to work.

“As you’ll read in there, we’re going to keep you at your current clearance level,” Hill stated coolly as they walked towards the elevator.

“Does that mean I still have to take the advanced annual exams?”

“Yes. While the Avengers Initiative is on ‘pause’ after the Incident,” she shot Dani an eye roll, “the Director and I feel it would be valuable for you to work with some of the upper-level agents.”

She stopped in her tracks as if she remembered something else to add and turned to the doctor.

“Perhaps fieldwork, if it’s called for. You certainly proved yourself useful there.”

Was that a compliment? Dani felt warm at the sentiment, a little more confident now in her return to the capital.

“Do I get my old office back?” She asked, hopefully.

“The furniture might have been moved around a bit, but yes. I guess I don’t need to show you to your office then,” she stopped and offered a soft smile, a real one. “Enjoy your first day back.”

Making her way to the elevator, her body steered her like an old memory through the familiar hallways. As she opened her office door, she could already see there was already a bouquet of flowers and a file waiting for her on her desk. The irises’ woody smell drew her in as she picked out the small card among the violet blooms.

_ Happy first day of school, kid. _

Your suite’s always open if you need a getaway.

\- Tony & Pepper

She smiled at the gesture. Tony had taken the news gracefully, for Tony, at least. Dani only had to endure a full day of snipes and snide remarks from her brother before settling into acceptance.

Dani knew that also might have been because he’d been on damage control since he and Pepper had returned from China, where he’d finally had his arc reactor removed along with the shrapnel. He’d insisted on spending the rest of her time in New York together, and it almost seemed like he was ready to turn over a new leaf.

But, Tony was her brother, and she could see the restlessness in him. He was itching to get back to having a proper lab, working on suits, and resolving problems. She was just hoping that he didn’t egg on any more terrorists when he did get back to it. She’d advised him as much before she left.

She could still remember Pepper’s sad smile as she rolled luggage out of Stark Tower.

But it wasn’t an ending.

Her suite was still waiting for her, as was her family. While guilt nagged at her some nights, she was thankful to have her own space, her own job, and her own friends here for her.

After putting away the paperwork Hill had issued her, Dani turned her attention to the folder on her desk. Spotting one word at the top of the file, her heart sunk.

Rumlow.

Fuck.

The name sent a jolt through her system, her heart starting to race as she held the file in her hands. This was not what she had in mind when Hill advised she’d be working with higher-ranking agents. She tried to compose herself.

Maybe he would be civilized.

Maybe he would act professionally.

Maybe it was all just a stupid macho act he put on to strike fear into the hearts of his team.

But she didn’t like the odds, not after the last time she had to deal with him. Dani had barely made it halfway through the file when a knock at the door made her jump out of the seat of her chair.

“We still on for the appointment, doc?”

Her stomach squirmed, and her breath hitched in the back of her throat as the gruff voice coming through a crack in the doorway. Dani took a deep breath and tried to steel herself.

“Yep, come on in and take a seat on the bench.”

Rumlow was a big guy, all muscles and jawline, still dressed in all-black tac gear. He felt even bigger now, radiating this brusque confidence that took up the whole room and made it hard to breathe. Dani gave him as wide of a berth as she could, hip-hugging the wall as he walked toward the exam table. He leisurely pulled his shirt over his head, revealing a chiselled physique littered with scars and still-healing bruises.

“So, a pinched nerve, huh? Do you remember how it happened?” She asked, looking down at where she left off in his file.

“Can’t place it. All I know is from my neck to my shoulder blade, it’s just like jolts of pain. Sometimes it’s a little numb.”

She walked towards the table and held out her open palm.

“May I?”

He looked at her, maybe  _ through _ her. She tried not to think too hard about it.

She took his left wrist into her hands and guided it through some simple movements to see any reaction or resistance. His eyes were boring into the side of her face; she could feel it burning into her skin. Dani tried to keep her breathing level, but it was getting harder to concentrate.

Switching to the right arm, her mind kept slipping back to the mat.

_ “Aren’t gonna get up, Fisher? I don’t got all day.” _

“Better or worse since your last appointment?” Her voice cracked as she spoke.

She cleared her throat and tried to push herself into the present, focussing on feeling the muscles and tendons and trying to ignore his gaze.

_ “What? Too tight, doc?” _

The thudding in her ears was louder than whatever answer he’d given her. A tremor started in her hands. She abruptly jerked them away from his wrist and swiftly pulled them above her head, exaggerating the stretch as she turned away from the table.

She needed to get a hold of herself.

She needed to just push herself through this.

“You alright, doc?”

“Yeah, sorry,” she tried to blow off with a fake smile. “Just haven’t had my coffee yet this morning, I’m still a little stiff.”

Whatever she did, she knew she needed his hands away from her.

“Lift your hands towards the ceiling. I just want to check something.”

It was an excuse, reprieve from the thumping heart in her and the panicked voice in her head screaming at her to get the fuck out of the room, away from the man in front of her.

“I’m going to walk you through some stretches I need you to do at least once a day,” she reverted back to a clinical mode in an attempt to power through. “This could take another week or two to really clear up, but you should maintain them if you want to prevent this in the future.”

She couldn’t even remember showing him the stretches; her head was in a whole other state. Her mind was in a fugue state, just scraping by and running through the motions without actually sending signals to her brain.

Her brain was too occupied, trying not to display any sign of weakness.

By the time she shuffled him out of her office, she was ready to break. Breath ragged, chest tight, her mind swirled back to the sensations, the harsh whispers, the thudding of her back against the mat…

She needed to get herself out of this.

She could hear Clint’s voice in her head, directing her through as she searched the room for four things she could see: Jacket on hook. Folder on desk. Tiles on ceiling. Flowers on desk.

Three things she could touch: The bumpy wall. Her knit sweater. The smooth desk.

Two things she could smell: The peaceful scent of irises. Harsh bleach coming in from the hallway.

And the only thing she could taste was the acid in her mouth from holding back vomit.

Her breathing started to come back to her at a steady pace. Her mind was whirring, trying to solve a problem that wasn’t so easily solved.

Right now, she was the sole physiotherapist with clearance high enough to treat him. It wasn’t like she could just thrust him onto another practitioner, not without filing a report, and to do that meant she had to admit something happened on the record. And to do that would mean a lot of questions and scrutiny as to why she didn’t report it sooner.

But she wasn’t even entirely convinced something  _ did _ happen. And it wasn’t like he’d acted out during the appointment. Her brain was betraying her, she decided, forcing intrusive thoughts and memories into her vision.

It was once a month unless there was an emergency. Trying to convince herself logically, Dani knew she could handle one hour out of her month. Sixty minutes.

Right?

Dani managed to get herself back to baseline about twenty minutes later, thoughts evening out and mind-made. Hunger was long gone, so she skipped lunch, throwing herself into her notes, files and schedules. She was focussed on the types of problems she  _ could _ resolve, and the steady stream of work kept her mind from drifting.

She only coming up to breathe as her phone buzzed at her. ‘Cap’ was illuminated on her screen, a short text popping up in the notifications: _ “Want a ride?” _

Realization dawned on her that it was already five, and she cursed under her breath. Reaching over for the phone, she smiled at the message and typed out a reply before gathering her things and heading for the lobby. Steve was already waiting for her, standing just outside the turnstiles in a bomber jacket, jeans, and bright-eyed smile.

Under his arm was a motorcycle helmet.

“I’m suddenly glad I decided to wear pants today,” the brunette said with a chuckle.

His smile turned toothy, and he opened his arms for an embrace, “Dani, how was your first day back?”

She gladly hugged him, engulfed in his broad shoulders and biceps.

“It was a day. You?”

He hummed as they started walking out the doors, “Oh you know, keeping busy. Just got off a mission, actually.”

“Keeping out of trouble, I hope.”

“Don’t worry, not looking to be on your appointment list any time soon,” he joked.

The sun was starting to fall, spring hues filling the sky. The air was wet with the rain from earlier in the day, dew still sitting on the grass’s blades in the courtyard.

“You haven’t asked where we’re going,” the brunette said, more of a statement than a question.

“I have the address on good authority,” Steve said slyly.

Dani raised her eyebrows in confusion but gladly took the helmet as he passed it to her.

“Don’t you have a spare?” She asked, motioning to his own head.

“Nah, don’t worry about me.”

She shot him a look but slipped the helmet over her head anyway. She sat behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. She jumped a little when he pulled her arms around him even closer, her entire body melded to his back.

She could feel his muscles through his shirt stretching and pulled as he looked at her over his shoulder.

“Hold on tight, you won’t hurt me,” he quipped, and she was very glad the helmet covered the raging blush on her face.

The engine rumbled to life as they flew along the streets of D.C. Dani clung onto Steve as they wound through the city, helmeted head resting on his back and watching it all whip past. Her place wasn’t far from the office, just enough of a ride to get her heart pumping for all the right reasons.

Sitting flush against the super solider, she suddenly realized the appeal of riding motorcycles.

They came to a stop in front of her place, and she handed the helmet back to Steve. She was just about to thank him for the ride when he walked toward the door, helmet in hand.

“Oh, you don’t have to walk me to my door,” she tried to intervene, the chivalrous action making her face a little too warm.

“It’s on the way.”

Now she was even more confused, but she followed him anyway, jogging slightly to catch up to him.

“The way to where?”

She watched as he pulled a ring of keys from his front pocket and walked further down her hallway. He passed her, unlocking the door at the end of the hall with a grin.

“My place.”

Her jaw slacked, heart pounding as she realized the set-up. Steve stood in his doorway with a mischievous grin, striking her speechless.

“Well. Uh, hi, neighbour?”

Nat was going to have a field day.


	3. Chapter 3

** May 29, 2013 **

“Did you really have to throw a party on a Wednesday night?”

Dani groaned. Leave it to her brother to plan a celebration in the middle of the week and expect his sister — who works a full-time job — to show up.

“It’s my birthday!” the voice on the other end of the line whined.

This better be worth her vacation day.

“Just Manhattan things,” she muttered under her breath, knowing complaining about it now was fruitless.

Hanging up the phone, she sighed and stared at her already packed luggage. She’d agreed to come weeks ago. At this point, she was just whining for the sake of it. There were better ways she could have used this vacation day, after all — like on an actual trip, far away from her brother.

Thankfully, Clint managed to get access to a QuinJet that morning, so she met him at HQ. Nat was already in town somewhere on an assignment, so once she and Clint arrived, they headed over to Stark Tower to drop off their things and figure out the plan for the rest of the day.

They’d barely set their bags down past the threshold when Dani’s suite’s door swung open.

“Lucy, I’m home!” Tony called out to no one as he waltzed through.

“I thought I asked JARVIS to revoke your access.”

Tony gave her an insulted look, “It’s my tower!”

“I know, I know,” she said with a giggle before pulling him into a hug. “Happy birthday, old man. How’s the hill looking?”

He huffed into her ear, “You’re not allowed to joke about that when you live next door to Captain Fossil.”

She ignored her brother’s dramatics, hanging her garment bag on the back of the bathroom door for later and setting out her toiletry bag.

“So, what time do you want us down there?” Clint asked, taking the opportunity to cut through the sibling’s spat.

But, as usual, Tony couldn’t let up.

“I guess I should ask you to show up an hour before I need you since  _ someone _ doesn’t respect deadlines.”

“That was one time, and I was working,” Dani defended.

“It’s been at least four times.”

“Actually, sir, it’s been twice,” JARVIS confirmed from above.

“Price is Right rules. I win,” Dani sniped, arms crossed over her chest.

Tony sighed in defeat, “Seven. Starts at seven.”

And he was out the door before anyone could chime in with anything else. It was like a tornado had ripped through the room, with Clint and Dani sitting in silence staring at each other, trying to process what had just happened.

“Why did you agree to come again?” Clint asked, breaking into a chuckle.

“Because it got him off my case about my own birthday,” she moaned. “At this point, I don’t even know if it was worth it.”

“Open bar, though?”

“There is that,” she conceded. “Brunch?”

“Scotty’s?”

“You got it.”

They made their way to the local diner, bright blue signage outside and grabbed a booth. They popped open the menus just as the waitress stopped by their table for introductions and a fresh coffee pot.

“How’s training going?” Clint asked from across the table. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Up to seven miles, three times a week,” she said with a proud smile. “That 1.5-mile run’s going to be nothing.”

He shared the grin, “And everything else?”

She took a sip of her coffee, trying to forget her last session with Rumlow. They hadn’t been getting much easier, and she was starting to think he was enjoying how uncomfortable he made her. All she could do was wish an extended mission or last-minute assignment would force him to reschedule his regular monthly appointment, but so far, no such luck.

She wasn’t about to tell Clint that. After his last outburst, following her previous annual assessment, she didn’t want to set him off again, not when the two worked so closely. It wasn’t right for her to put more friction between their working relationship when it really had nothing to do with Clint, to begin with.

“It’s fine,” she replied, sipping her coffee. “What about things with you?”

She could the gears turning in his head, wondering if he should challenge her answer, but thankfully he stopped it at that.

“Fury’s got me running around the globe as usual,” he grimaced. “Didn’t know if I’d make it today, actually.”

“Well, I’m glad you did. Who else could sneak me out of the party early as easily as you and Nat?”

“Ah yes, the Irish goodbye,” Clint mused with a twinkle. “We’ve basically perfected it.”

Plates cleaned and bellies much too full, the two sat there drinking their coffee in pleasant silence for a bit.

“Do you have anything to do in the city?” Dani asked, not wanting to hog the day if he did.

The blond shook his head, “No, but we can stop by the apartment if you want. Take Lucky off of Kate’s hands for a couple hours?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

* * *

The subway wasn’t the most glamorous way to travel, but it was the easiest way to get around. It wasn’t like she was running around with Tony or Steve, who were bound to get mobbed by people who recognized them. It was nice to hop on public transit without worrying too much about ending up in a #spotted piece on Twitter.

They made it in good time, chatting along the way.

Clint unlocked the door to his apartment, and Dani could see someone sitting on the sofa. Heels kicked onto the coffee table, she was halfway through what looked to be a trashy romance novel. Lucky sat on the couch beside her, head in her lap as she flipped pages.

“Look who decided to finally show up,” she sniped over the book.

Lucky’s head popped up, and he bounded over to Clint, nearly knocking him down as he leapt up and started licking his face. Dani made it through Clint’s door, avoiding an eager dog lunging at her with its tongue out.

“Kate, this is Dani. Dani, this is Kate, the other Hawkeye,” Clint introduced.

She was adorable; young, petite with sleek black hair and a familiar lopsided smile. Had she seen her on the street, she would never have pegged her as an archer, but the swagger in how she handled and spoke with Clint gave her a hint that the title was earned.

“The better Hawkeye,” Kate clarified with a wink before turning to Clint. “She’s cute. Where did you find her?”

“Dani’s the head of Physiotherapy at SHIELD,” Clint sighed.

She paused, eyes darting between them before she sighed exasperatedly, “What is it with you and women with PhDs?”

Clint’s face turned tomato red, extending all the way back to his ears. Dani didn’t think she’d ever seen him that flush. It was adorable how flustered he got at the accusation.

“It—it’s not like… that,” he stammered, shooting panicked glances at the two women.

Meanwhile, Dani was trying hard not to crack, biting into her fist to avoid snorting out in laughter. Kate looked proud of being able to embarrass the blond in front of his friend. Dani, like any good Stark, could respect that.

“I feel like we’re going to be good friends,” Dani said, jokingly putting her arm around her. “We should go for coffee and swap stories.”

“Sounds like a date. I could always use new material.”

Clint groaned from the couch, “What have I done?”

Eventually, the pair made it out for the promised walk, taking a scenic route around Brooklyn. They stopped at a nearby cafe for coffee for the trip. Looping her arm into the crook of his outstretched elbow, they walked side-by-side, dodging other pedestrians and getting sidetracked by Lucky’s sudden movements.

“So, women with PhDs, huh? That’s your kink?”

He nearly snorted out his sip of coffee.

“My uh, exes just happened to be well-educated? Probably why they’re not with me anymore,” he joked, but Dani could tell it was a bit of a sore subject from his tone. “What about you, any embarrassing relationship stories you wanna trade me?”

He looked at her expectantly, and her stomach dropped a bit, knowing her answer would likely disappoint.

“Mm, I haven’t really dated anyone since my undergrad,” she admitted quietly. “Probably for the best, considering my track record.”

He looked over at her with a semi-serious expression, unsure of how to respond to the admission. Dani was almost thankful when Lucky darted towards a squirrel across the path, sending her into Clint’s side and nearly knocking him over.

He caught her quickly, though, propping her up against his side while keeping a tight hold on the leash.

“Sorry,” she said bashfully, righting herself and removing her hand from his chest.

Was it weird they were so comfortable around each other?

Truthfully, she appreciated the closeness and ease they shared, even if it looked a little odd from an outsider’s perspective. And, Clint was always that way with Nat, so she didn’t think much of it. She’d just always assumed he was a little more touchy-feely than most, which was OK with her.

Half of her job involved contact and knowing it was a comfort, especially to people with high-stress jobs, touching never really bothered her.

If anything, it made her feel good that he was comfortable enough to reach out when he needed to. She wasn’t quite there yet herself, but it was like he knew exactly when she needed a little grounding, and she was immensely thankful for it.

“Ready to head home?”

* * *

By the time they made it back to the tower, it was past five. Clint had just received a text from Nat that she’d be late, and to get ready without her. Champagneless, they made do with some wine strategically left in Dani’s fridge.

“Need me to zip you in?”

Clint’s reassuring voice floated through the suite into the bathroom, where Dani was getting ready. She rolled her eyes and returned to applying her makeup. Had he been waiting to ask that?

“Sorry, buddy,” she called out from the bathroom. “No zipper on this dress.”

She could have sworn she heard a ‘damn’ from the kitchen but brushed it off as Clint messing around. Back to the task at hand, Dani struggled to get her hair into even the semblance of the chignon. She was already annoyed at having to be here on a weekday, so her hair not cooperating wasn’t helping her mood.

“How does Nat make this look so easy?” Dani huffed, bobby pins sticking out from between her teeth.

“Do you need help?”

Clint popped his head through the half-open bathroom door in a suit she hadn’t seen before. No tie, though. Dani was suddenly grateful she was already dressed, a little bashful as she watched his eyes look her up and down.

“No, I think I’ve got it,” she reached back, winding her hair around before carefully pinning it in place.

He stayed there, watching on curiously as she double-checked her work in the mirror.

“Dr. Fisher, Miss Romanoff has just walked through the front door,” JARVIS called out overhead.

“Nat? We’re just finishing up in the bathroom,” Dani called out.

“Finishing up, huh?” She purred as she waltzed over, already dressed and ready to go. “Oh, you did well.”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” She shot back with a grin before pulling the redhead into a hug.

The trio headed the elevators and made it to the party floor with time to spare. Dani was regretting coming as soon as she stepped off and looked into the sea of people. Her brother was nowhere to be seen, nor Pepper.

“We’re on time, and the host is fashionably late,” she huffed. “Typical.”

Nat and Clint got flagged down by some colleagues, so they flitted off towards the bar, leaving Dani to herself. The room was swarming with guests dressed to the nines.

She felt a little lost looking around, music coming together in unsavoury tunes she could barely hear over her heart thumping. The suits and dresses started to blend together, and a tightness erupted in her chest.

What was wrong with her? She’d been in this place, in this situation so many times before and enjoyed it, but suddenly the scene in front of her was suffocating.

Did she not drink enough to enjoy this? Did she  _ need _ to be tipsy to enjoy this?

At this point, she wasn’t even sure a double would steady her nerves.

Seeking out a comparatively quieter corner, she leaned her forearm against the glass and stared out the windows onto the city below, just trying to catch her breath.

“I was never much for crowds either,” a voice called from behind her.

She turned to find Bruce, all wire-haired in a navy suit, shy smile gracing his lips. She hooked an arm around him for a breathless hug. She sunk into contact, his familiar grin lifting her spirits.

“Bruce, it’s been a while,” she said softly, trying to keep her voice steady.

“It has,” he said, adjusting his glasses. “How have you been?”

His eyes searched her face as if to confirm what he already assumed. It wasn’t a worried look, not something she’d cringe over later; it was just friendly concern based on a hunch.

Her body language and her pause probably gave her away already, so what was the use in lying?

“Oh, you know. Struggling a bit,” Dani admitted, biting her lip.

She turned away from his gaze just as it turned sad. She didn’t feel the need to hide behind false pretences with Bruce, but that didn’t mean the sympathy felt any less gross.

“How do you deal with crowds?” she asked quietly.

He shifted closer to her, lifting a hand to gently rest on her shoulder, and hummed a little as he thought about his answer.

“I usually avoid them.”

They both smiled knowingly, “I think it might be too late for that.”

His thumb drew small circles on her shoulder as he looked down in thought.

“I just try to stick with familiar people, ducking out when I need a breather,” he replied, giving a bashful chuckle. “I don’t know if that’s at all helpful.”

She wanted to tell him how grateful she was for him saving her from herself like this, but the words were lodged in her throat. Maybe she’d be able to vocalize it better when she was feeling a little more like herself.

Until then, she gave him a grateful smile, “It is, more than you know. Thanks, Bruce.”

“Talking helps,” he added, patting her on the shoulder. “If you ever want to…”

She smiled at him, “I appreciate it.”

Dani reached up to squeeze Bruce’s hand in thanks. Before she could even turn to face the rest of the room, she felt familiar calloused fingers carefully drifting over her back.

Goosebumps followed the trail until it landed at her low back, and she recognized the voice in her ear, “It’s getting a little loud in here for me. Wanna get some fresh air?”

Baby blues concerned and staring into her unsteady gaze, she was grateful he had a sharp eye.

And a penchant for telling little white lies to make her feel better.

“Yes, please.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know when you just can't seem to get a chapter just right and end up making tiny adjustments to it for days on end?
> 
> I'm not saying that was this chapter, but that was this chapter.
> 
> I think I'm getting antsy for this slow burn to start burning... anyone else?  
> (We're not that far off.)


	4. Chapter 4

** July 1, 2013 **

“You sure you don’t want me to show you how to snap a guy’s neck with your thighs?”

Nat smirked up at her from her knees, leaning slightly on the practice mats below while Dani tried to catch her breath. She gave the redhead a pleading look as she tried to tuck some loose hairs into her ponytail.

“Tempting, but I struggle with basic takedowns on a good day, Nat,” she huffed. “Not really ready for advanced mode yet.”

The spy shrugged, “I thought it would be motivating.”

They went for another few rounds, Nat taking it easier on her than she typically would have, but Dani was thankful for it. She wasn’t really feeling herself today, too wrapped up in work and personal life to really enjoy the release of an intense workout.

She was still keeping up her early morning runs on the side, hoping to make easy work of the cardio portion of the annual exam. Every so often, Steve would join her, slowing to her pace before she surrendered and let him go full speed.

“Any plans for the 4th?” Nat asked, pulling herself into an overhead stretch.

“Nah, I’m stuck at the office,” Dani replied, but she was smiling.

Nat shot her a knowing look, lips tight with a smirk peeking out from one corner.

“You volunteered again, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.”

Nat shot her an eye-roll and chuckled, “Tony’s parties aren’t  _ that _ bad.”

The redhead wasn’t about to make her rethink her decision. If anything, she was eager to volunteer. It was an easy excuse to bow out of attendance duties, and after her experience at the previous party, the last thing she wanted was to have to be in a crowd right now.

“Tony isn’t  _ your _ brother,” she pointed out, trying to terminate the current line of questioning.

Nat got the hint.

“Fair point.”

“What about you?”

Dani shifted to the mat, flowing into a hip stretch as she waited for her friend’s answer.

“Not sure we’ll be in town,” Nat replied, knowingly as if she understood the brunette’s implied question. “Don’t think I couldn’t tell you were disappointed to see me.”

Today’s session  _ was _ supposed to be with Clint, but Fury apparently had it out for him. Nat wouldn’t tell her why, but she assumed it was something that happened on a mission. Either way, Fury was going out of his way to make sure Barton was nowhere near D.C.

They’d exchanged occasional texts when he hadn’t gone dark, but she missed seeing him around the office. Missed his voice. Missed him.

“Clint doesn’t hit me as hard,” Dani defended.

“I’m  _ sure _ that’s the only reason why,” she mused sarcastically. “How’s the Captain, by the way?”

“He’s good,” Dani said with a gentle smile.

Nat rolled her eyes, “Just  _ good _ ? What, making the newspaper isn’t newsworthy all of a sudden?”

Somehow photos of Dani catching a ride back to the apartment on the back of Steve’s motorcycle had made their way to the gossip magazines. It was embarrassing and had been lorded over her head by nearly everyone in the medical wing. Jokingly, of course, but she could tell there was a little unease around the prospect of fraternization.

Obviously, that was a massive no-no at an intelligence agency.

To her credit, Hill didn’t really seem to care, brushing it off with the fact that any female staffer (or even male staffer) pictured with the Captain was bound to make the rags eventually. But, that didn’t stop Tony from calling her as soon as the photo hit the paper’s website.

She’d never heard that many pop culture references to cradle robbing before.

“We both know those stories are bullshit,” Dani settled. “Plus, you’ve been in way more tabloids than I have.”

“I’ll have you know Clint, and I are working on our second marriage,” she said glibly.

“Oh, I thought you were still pining after Thor,” Dani shot back.

“As far as I’m concerned, he’s Jane’s problem. I’m not touching that one with a stick,” she settled definitively.

“As long as it’s not Tony.”

* * *

By the time she got back to her office, there was a file sitting on her desk waiting for her. Apparently, Rollins was on the docket after a mission, probably that damn rotator cuff again. And, glancing at the clock in the corner of her laptop screen, she had all of ten minutes to review the recent additions to his file.

Lovely.

As expected, he showed up right on time, knocking before popping his head through the door with a smile.

“Come on in,” she greeted with a smile. “How are you feeling?”

Plopping himself onto the exam table, he immediately groaned in reply, clutching his arm against his chest. Thankfully, his shirt was a button-up, so he slipped it off quickly without straining his shoulders.

“Not great, huh?” She asked. “It’s OK, we’ll figure it out,” she said mostly to herself.

She gently grasped his wrist and held one hand under his bicep as she steered him through the movements. Just as she suspected, the telltale tightness and hissing resumed at the usual spot.

“You been keeping up with your stretches?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.

He gave her a sheepish smile, but she’d already known the answer.

“Let me remind you then,” Dani chided but kept a smile on her face.

It was an unusually quiet appointment for Rollins. The ordinarily chatty agent was pensive, but she figured he might have just been in too much pain to be talkative. They approached the end of the routine, just wrapping up on the final step by the time he finally got around to making conversation.

“So, how’s the Captain, doc? Hear you guys are neighbours,” Rollins asked, tone airy.

“Oh, really, he tell you that?”

When would this gossip finally end? She’d endured it for weeks already. Dani didn’t know if Rollins had meant it to piss her off. He sometimes verged on too personal with his past conversations, but he’d always been respectful.

Although everyone looked like a saint compared to Rumlow.

“Yeah, you know. We were talking about carpooling the other day,” he supplied in a level voice.

Maybe she was just having an off day, maybe the gossip was getting under her skin, or maybe she just felt weird about the whole thing, but the conversation was making her skin crawl.

Her stomach lurched.

No matter what way this conversation was analyzed, it seemed off.

She’d usually be so quick to shoot back a cheap shot, a one-liner to end or re-route the conversation back to something more professional. The words were lodged at the back of her throat, disarmed by this crushing sense of dread.

It was the same feeling she’d had in the back of her mind any time she was alone in a room with a STRIKE team member. It was slightly irrational, and it was unfair to them, but she couldn’t stop herself. And for that reason, she couldn’t trust herself here, in this room.

Was she just imagining that the words were being said in Rumlow’s voice?

Was she reading too much into this?

She nodded to Rollins and settled on just shutting it down.

“Right. Let’s get you set up with some follow-up appointments, OK?”

* * *

It was dark by the time Dani made it home, feet dragging along the ground slightly. She was exhausted; between the extra hours treating a recon team who had a cave mishap and the lack of sleep she’d been getting lately, she was spent.

She was just rounding the corner of her hallway when she spotted him just about to close the door behind him.

“Steve,” she called out and watched him smile in recognition.

“Long time no see,” he said with a smile, “Long day?”

“Yep,” she replied without flourish. “Any plans for fourth?”

He leaned on his door frame, smiling down at her from underneath a baseball cap. Not that he was fooling anyone with that get-up; photographers managed to get at least weekly shots of Steve out on his motorcycle. With or without passengers.

“I’m actually leaving tomorrow morning to spend the rest of the week in the City,”

“So I heard from a certain tin birdy,” she said with a smirk, earning a chuckle from the blonde. “Which is why I wanted to bring you this today.”

She unlocked her door and scuttled into her apartment, grabbing a white bakery box out of the fridge. Back in the hallway, she pulled back the lid to reveal a festive cheesecake. A miniature ‘Happy Birthday’ placard sat in the middle of the cake, among a sea of edible confetti sprinkles in red, white and blue.

“Did you make this?” Steve said, eyes wide in admiration.

“Of course,” Dani said, her cheeks feeling a little too warm. “I remembered my cheesecake was a big hit at Thanksgiving. And I knew I wouldn’t see you until after Tony’s party… So, happy early birthday.”

“Thank you, Dani. This is really sweet. Do you want to come in for coffee?”

Pulse check: Was this weird? Was it out of line?

This wasn’t anything she wouldn’t have done for Bobbi Morse, or Clint, or Nat… so why was her talk with Rollins replaying in her head?

Why did she feel guilty?

Shoving it to the back of her head, she wasn’t going to let a silly feeling get in the way of celebrating her friend’s birthday.

“That’d be lovely,” she replied with a smile.

Locking her door behind her, they headed into Steve’s, which was way more decorated than her own apartment. She took her time looking at the prints, and vintage photos hung on the wall. Trailing her fingers along the record player’s top, she looked over to see him observing her from behind the kitchen counter.

She blushed, caught, “Your place is really nice, Steve.”

“Thanks. I’m no professional, but I think I did an OK job.”

She wove through the apartment as he set up the coffee maker, being generally nosey. Tony would be proud. A newspaper sitting on the shelf caught her eye, and she immediately grabbed it for a closer look. The front cover featured the same image that’d been plastered all over her office thanks to the playful medical staff.

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to frame this,” she pleaded, holding up the front page for him to see.

It was his turn to flush, a bashful smile on his face, “I thought it was a good shot.”

She jokingly pouted, trying to distract from the burning embarrassment she was currently feeling.

“No one’s given you a hard time for that, right?”

He suddenly seemed more protective, arms crossed over his chest in dad mode and his smile fading slightly from his lips.

“No, no,” she brushed off, not wanting to kick a dead horse. “It’s a right of passage for SHIELD agents, or at least, so I’ve heard.”

“Yeah, even Barton got his turn,” he laughed. “The media doesn’t discriminate.”

Migrating to the kitchen island, she made it just in time for Steve to pass her a steaming mug of coffee. Black, but he knew that already, having had coffee in her apartment a few times the past few months.

It was the only way she knew how to thank him for his occasional rides to and from work.

This was the first time he’d returned the favour, though, and it was nice to know he felt comfortable enough to invite her into his space. Compartmentalization was a real thing, something many agents needed to stay sane in this industry.

“Speaking of Clint, do you know why Fury has it out for him?” she asked with a smile, hoping she could keep things light.

As soon as Steve’s expression shifted, she knew she’d asked the wrong question.

“Sorry, Dani, I don’t think that’s my place,” he said with a frown. “You’ll have to take it up with Barton.”

She blew on her coffee before taking a hesitant sip, “That bad, huh?”

He chuckled but kept his eyes stayed serious, hurt, even. He lost the crinkle near his eyes that he usually kept up; she was sad to see it go. Steve was always a little ray of sunshine, so seeing him lose that light tipped her off to its severity.

“It’s not great,” he admitted.

She rubbed her palms on her pants, suddenly too warm and heart beating a little too fast at the thought of her friend being in trouble.

“Well, enough talking shop,” she said with a smile, trying to turn the mood on its head. “Ready for cheesecake?”

He smiled back, seeing through her shift but welcoming the warmer topic.

“Absolutely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What would we do without a little gossip? Although Cap seems tight-lipped on Clint's busy schedule.
> 
> Any bets on how Dani's annual eval will go this year?
> 
> Next chapter's already in the can, so I'll get it up this weekend.  
> Happy Friday!


	5. Chapter 5

** October 21, 2013 **

“I feel like you’re dropping me off on my first day of school.”

Steve Rogers was waiting outside Dani’s door that morning, holding a tray with two cups of coffee and a broad smile gracing his face. He sure looked the part of a proud dad on his way to drop their kid off at school, but she avoided making the joke.

One thing she knew for sure: they weren’t taking the bike today.

“Well, I thought I’d wish you a little luck today,” he said in earnest. “Even though I know you’re going to do great.”

“I appreciate it, Steve.”

They walked down to the garage to find his SUV as she sipped her coffee.

“Nervous?” He said, slipping the key into the ignition.

“A little,” she admitted.

In fact, she was nauseous, bile sitting at the back of her throat the entire ride into work. Steve tried to make small talk, and it was better that he did than let her sit with her thoughts, but hot damn was her mind just buzzing with all the details and tricks she was trying hard to remember.

“Once you get your feet on the ground, it’ll come naturally,” Steve assured her.

She hoped it was true.

After a firm hug from Steve, Dani made a beeline to her office, setting down her work bag, heavier than usual with her SHIELD training kit. She changed into it and examined the time on her phone. It was go time.

Out in the backfield, there was already a line-up of SHIELD agents about to be put through their paces. Dani checked in with an agent holding a black tablet before falling in line with the others. She tried her best to ignore Rumlow burning a hole into the side of her face with his eyes, but her heart-rate was steadily increasing.

Maybe if Clint hadn’t fucked with him, he wouldn’t have had it out for her. She knew it wasn’t entirely true — Rumlow didn’t like much of anyone, but she couldn’t deny the pure air of spite she could feel when she was around him.

She went through the training segments in her head: Sit-ups, sprint, push-ups, a mile and a half run, target practice at the range, a dummy drag, pull-ups and then combat.

Easy peasy, right?

Dani could have snorted. She had a feeling STRIKE team, who were overseeing the trials, didn’t make anything easy.

Before she knew it, she was on her back, in the grass, crunching up toward her knees like her life depending on it. The timed sprint was nothing, a welcome reprieve for the doctor who was looking forward to the cardio portions of the testing.

And bonus, it wasn’t until they hit the pull-ups that her arms started to meld into jello at her sides.

Thankfully they had a ten-minute break to get back into the building, shake it off, and breathe a little. Their numbers were already dwindling; around four agents had been pulled out of the evaluation so far for not making minimum time or numbers.

The main event was the combat portion: attack, defend, disarm, and take-down. Not always in that order or any order, really; it was dealer’s choice as far as how the agents were tested in this portion. If she was lucky, she’d get a breather between segments, but Dani wasn’t prepared to be so fortunate today.

Dani looked up to the observation level, only to find an empty open-air balcony and one-way glass. Nat and Clint told her they’d be watching, but that was only if Fury hadn’t assigned them a mission.

And based on the last few days of seeing neither spy, Dani didn’t have her hopes up for today.

Combat training was, of course, at the end of the day, making sure the exhausted recruits’ limbs were already at max exertion from the earlier exercises. All those early-morning runs paid off for Dani, as she wasn’t nearly as breathless and shaky as last year’s assessment.

But, she wasn’t out of the woods yet. Depending on who she was paired with, this could be just as nerve-wracking as her first go. Something told her — maybe that burning sensation on the side of her face from his gaze — that Rumlow was going to try to make this as difficult as possible for her.

The STRIKE leader stood at the top of the room, overlooking a massive area on the reinforced floors as the rest of the group huddled in the stands at the side of the room.

“Rollins, take Singh,” he barked.

Rumlow passed Rollins a Glock for the exercise. Unloaded, it served as a prop for the disarming portion of the activity. Dani watched as the two men came to the center of the floor, Rollins taking the lead in movements. Singh deftly dodged the blows Rollins delivered, meeting him strike for strike in retaliation.

He managed to get him on his back and let the STRIKE member reset as Rollins pulled his dummy weapon from his holster. Disarm, disable, done. It was all done in under five minutes; perfect SHIELD efficiency.

Two more agents went on like this, with Rollins hand-selecting which agents faced whom. The ease of the previous matches made the doctor a little more comfortable.

It was five minutes; Dani could handle five minutes of anything.

“Juarez, Fisher.”

The two words birthed a lump in her throat, and her hands shook slightly as she stood up from her seat in the stands. Juarez was a burly guy, at least 6’5 and solid muscle, which was equivalent to her sparing against a slightly smaller Cap. But, at this point, Dani expected nothing less.

She knew this wasn’t going to come easy, and she’d prepared for as much.

Rumlow handed off the gun to the agent as Dani shakily walked toward the floor’s center, legs feeling more like lead. She took a deep breath and attempted to settle, using everything Nat and Clint had taught her to ground herself.

She might have looked like a rattling mess on the surface, but she was collected on the inside. Let’s see if she couldn’t make it two for two on surprising STRIKE during evals.

Juarez started in a flurry. One blow, left arm, right kick, dodge. He didn’t pull any punches, giving it to her brute force as she tried to get her own strikes in. Her forearms rattled, blocking his strikes, and she kept having to readjust her stance to stay ahead of him.

She didn’t follow his shot to her ribs in time, stumbling back a few steps and letting out a breathy “oof” as she righted herself.

That would hurt later, but she tried to outpace the pain.

Fist, shin, elbow. Remember to block the ribs. She spotted a suitable opening and took him down to the ground, knocking his legs out from under him to hear a satisfying thud. All that was left now was disarming.

He had already pulled out the weapon, aiming it at her from his position on the ground as he got himself up. Hands in the air, she quickly maneuvered around his aim and wrenched the weapon from his grip. The next few seconds happened so fast, it was a wonder Dani noticed right away.

But she could feel it as soon as she snatched the weapon out of his hands. Like a sixth sense, she knew. Sliding the other hand’s fingertips over the side of the Glock, Dani saw red.

Her heart was beating so fast in her chest, adrenaline spiked, that she couldn’t stop herself. She recognized the rules of engagement here; she’d done this before. This was absolutely unacceptable, and the words tumbled out of her mouth before she could even consider the consequences.

“This gun,” she ejected the clip and hurled it across the room in one swift motion, “is fucking loaded, you asshole.”

It landed with a jingle, a telltale sign, as she ejected the last bullet that had already been chambered. While she barked the words unapologetically, she looked straight at Rumlow in defiance, waiting to be reprimanded for her choice of words. His face was unreadable, no surprise, no anger, no fear. Nothing.

Instead of the verbal dressing-down she was expecting in return, the entire room was painfully quiet for what seemed like an eternity.

“Juarez, Rumlow, my office. Now.”

The booming voice echoed in the room, her fellow recruits knowing enough not to make eye contact with the speaker. Nick Fury was standing at the observation deck’s railing, and while he was yards away, Dani could make out the vein in his forehead pulsing from where she stood.

“Everyone else, dismissed.”

Dani suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe again. She let the rest of the gun, still gripped firmly in her hand, fall to the floor at her side, suddenly losing feeling in her limbs. The whole moment raced through her head on replay.

Did that just happen?

A blonde rushed through the doors of the training floor and beelined for Dani. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she could process the face, but it took way too long for her mouth to catch up to that part of her brain.

Hands were at her back, escorting her through the exit doors before a single word, the one that’d been on the tip of her tongue, left her lips.

“Bobbi?”

“You didn’t hear anything I just said, did you?” She offered a sad smile as they walked into an empty office. “That’s OK, just sit. Breathe.”

The blonde sat her down in a chair and shut the door behind herself.

“Nat and Clint are on a mission,” Dani said, more to herself than Bobbi as she came to the realization.

She nodded, “They asked me to cheer you on today. You did amazing.”

Dani couldn’t even process the compliment, astounded both that her friends had the foresight to make sure she had a familiar face and that Bobbi was here, talking her down from whatever that had been.

“What just happened?” Dani hung her head in her hands, hunched over her knees as the thoughts and questions flooded her brain.

“Fury will get to the bottom of it,” Bobbi assured her, rubbing her back lightly. “How did you know it was loaded?”

She thought back to that split second in the fight.

“I felt the loaded chamber indicator when I was grabbing for it. I had to check it with my other hand to be sure,” Dani replied quietly.

The agent had a  _ loaded _ gun pointed at her face. One wrong move and she’d have a bullet in her. It wasn’t the first time she’d had a gun pointed at her, and she kept having to push back  _ that _ train of thought.

Is that why she was rattled?

Her hands could barely hold up her head anymore; she hadn’t realized until she was shaking too hard to ignore the tremors. She sat up straighter, trying to stop herself from devolving any further, but Dani only managed to divert her emotions, spiralling further into anger.

“It’s a training exercise, not the fucking Red Room,” she spat out.

Bobbi looked over at her with a frown, eyes worried for her friend. There was a knock at the door, and the blonde crossed the room to open it. Agent Hill stood with a tablet and a grave expression. Dani’s stomach churned, just looking at her.

“Dr. Fisher, if it’s alright with you, we’d like to take your statement for the report,” Hill said, eyes darting between the two women.

Dani nodded slowly, looking at Bobbi, who gave her a tight smile and a pat on the shoulder.

“Thank you, Agent Morse.”

Looking down at herself, she realized she was still in her kit. Not that it really mattered; she was about to sit across the table from a dozen different recording devices and get grilled anyway. Clint had described the process to her once after griping about some mission gone wrong.

She never thought she’d have to one day undergo it herself.

She sat in front of a familiar steel table, running her fingers over it absentmindedly as Hill set herself up across from her. She almost looked for the kind blue eyes that had greeted her from across a similar table a year and a half ago.

But there would be no chuckle from Coulson today.

Instead, Hill stayed stone-faced throughout her questions, and Dani stayed honest. Shooting glances at the one-way glass behind Hill, she briefly wondered if Fury was standing there. None of the items were a surprise to the doctor, and she was thankfully able to keep her voice level throughout the interview.

She was just going through the motions, brain on auto-pilot.

It wasn’t until Hill set her tablet on the table and started to stand that she realized it was over. If you’d asked her what she said, the answers flew out of her head in that brief moment. Exhaustion washed over Dani, and she had to lean a little too hard onto her hands to get herself out of the seat.

“Dr. Fisher,” Hill started before she left the room. “That was absolutely unacceptable and shouldn’t have happened under Rumlow’s watch. You… you should take the rest of the day off.”

She clapped the doctor on the shoulder. It was the only way Hill could comfort in this environment, she realized as she watched the slight frown on her face. Dani could barely nod in response, suddenly too tired to verbalize.

Dragging herself back to her office, Steve was already there waiting. Blue eyes shone with concern, surveying her up and down as if he was expecting her to break at any moment.

“Hill didn’t think it was a good idea for me to walk you off the floor,” he said in apology. “I wanted to—“

“—Don’t worry, Steve. I know you would’ve been there if you could.”

She was glad he didn’t pull her into a hug. Dani didn’t want to break in the middle of the hallway; she was too intent on keeping the anger alight a little longer. She secured her bag from her office without a word, letting Steve guide her into the elevator down to the garage with a hand at the small of her back.

Steve was hard to read on a good day, stoic and professional always. And, since coming to SHIELD, he’d been even more reserved, even with her. Which is why Dani was so surprised when she could practically feel the nerves and anger radiating off of him as they walked to his car. His jaw was tense and pulsing, teeth clenched together in a vice.

There was something more here. There had to be.

There was no way a weapon error would set the Captain off this much.

Her thoughts couldn’t stay on the thread long, never mind try to untangle it. Once seated in the front passenger seat, her hands were shaking too hard to buckle herself in, and she could feel the tears threatening to fall at the frustration. Steve reached over and fastened her in, giving her shoulder a squeeze before hopping in the driver’s seat.

Mind swirling, Dani tried to keep her feelings at bay. Just a little bit longer.

But her body betrayed her.

He didn’t even get to turn on the engine before she cracked. Heaving breaths taking over, she could feel the hot, massive tears slide down her cheeks. Steve’s arm was around her in an instant as she sobbed. He craned himself over the center console, gently nudging her head onto his shoulder.

By the time her breathing evened out, she realized her face was pressed against Steve’s chest, his arm supporting her securely in place. Her chest stopped heaving, her hands slowly stopped shaking, and realization set in. Dani was embarrassed, gently pushing herself back into her seat.

“I’m sorry, Steve,” she said softly as she wiped under her eyes with her fingertips.

He looked almost offended, “You have nothing to apologize for.”

But she felt like she did. She was being silly. She shouldn’t be this worked up over what amounted to a workplace accident. The safety was on; it was basically safe... like misplacing the stapler.

Sure, it was a loaded stapler that could kill people.

As much as she tried to brush it off, there was something else that was gnawing at her insides. Something she’d been sitting on for too long that needed to be processed now. She couldn’t just sit here and cry on Captain America’s shoulder for no reason.

That wasn’t who she was or who she wanted to be.

“I… I’ve never told anyone this,” Dani wasn’t sure she could do it, but she felt she owed him an explanation. “The last time I had a loaded gun pointed at me, someone di—didn’t make it.”

It was the truth, a truncated version, but the truth, nonetheless. She could not find the words to tell the rest of the story, unsure if now was the time or place. But at least now she didn’t feel like as much of a crybaby.

Steve’s expression crumpled, broad lines marring his face in concern.

“Dani, I’m so sorry.”

“I just… it—it just takes me back to that, and it’s so stupid,” she admonished herself, still feeling stupid for crying over it. “I didn’t even know it was loaded during the exercise, but I…”

“Just can’t get it out of your head? That’s normal, Dani. All things considered, you did exactly the right thing today,” he soothed. “Language and all.”

_ That _ earned a watery smile from the weary doctor.

He drove her home, unlocking the door for her — she didn’t trust her still trembling hands to handle keys without dropping them. He filled the kettle without asking, setting a herbal tea bag in a mug while she changed clothes.

Steve sat with her on the couch for a while, observing Dani more than whatever mindless movie was on the TV. He didn’t try to convince her to talk or ask any questions, he was just there, and Dani was grateful. She pulled a lavender wool blanket onto her lap, suddenly very glad it was one of the few things she brought to D.C. with her.

She brought it up to her nose out of habit, sad that the scent of Clint’s aftershave was long gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I debated for a while whether to split this into two parts, but here's an extra long chapter instead.
> 
> Also in this chapter, Dani opening up (slightly). We'll learn a little more about her past before the end of this part of the series.


	6. Chapter 6

** December 24, 2005 **

Overnight shifts at the dry cleaner were the best Dani could do for work while in school. She hated the smell her clothes leeched from the chemicals in the air. She hated the asshole manager, who inevitably seemed to conveniently forget the days she booked off for exams. But it was one of the only jobs and the only hours she could fit into her schedule.

Just another year and a half of keeping up her grades at the University of Michigan, and maybe, just maybe she could get a ride somewhere for the rest of her studies.

She looked down at her phone. 6 AM. Just enough time for her to get an hour nap before heading to her shift at the cafe. As usual, the bus was late, so she stood at the stood and rifled through her biology textbook to pass the time. Thankfully, it wasn’t snowing. Ann Arbor was oddly warm this time of night, and it felt nothing like Christmas Eve.

Not that she would know what Christmas Eve really felt like.

By the time Dani made it to the giant house she sub-letted a room out of, the sun was up, and there were three fewer chapters for her to read through. The halls were deadly quiet; most of the residents were college students that had gone home for the holidays, so for now, it was just Dani and the ginger house cat, Baguette.

Collapsing on her bed, crammed into the end of the smallest room in the house, Dani scarcely recalled her head hitting the pillow. She did, however, remember how she woke up.

It was a moment that would always be engraved in her memory.

She knew that even at that moment.

After all, staring down the barrel of an S&W M&P 9mm Shield is hard to forget.

* * *

** December 24, 2013 **

Waking with a start, Dani was gasping for breath as she bolted in her bed. Eyes darted, frantically examining the room, trying to situate herself so she could settle the pounding in her ears.

This was her suite at Stark Tower.

Heart rattling in her chest.

She was in New York.

Breathing coming back to her.

2013\. It was Christmas Eve, 2013.

Slower still.

It was still dark out.

Letting out a sharp, unsteady breath, she hunched over her lap. She’d like to think that it had been a long time since she’d had that dream, that memory, but in fact, it’d been a weekly occurrence since her annual exam. Dani didn’t take for granted the small mercy of the dream stopping at that point in the memory tonight.

Maybe it was the extra soft Stark Tower bed that made her feel uneasy, but she couldn’t seem to get back to sleep.

It was 5 AM when Dani padded down the common room floor hallway, beelining to the studio with her favourite yoga mat under her arm. The gym was vacant this time of morning, the prime opportunity to take a breather and center herself before spending time with the rest of the group all day.

For Dani, it wasn’t so much about the people themselves; in fact, Tony’s friends and colleagues were some of the most genuine people she knew. It was more about her recent experiences in large groups: the heart-pounding, the laboured breathing, the tight chest.

She couldn’t explain it, couldn’t even rationalize why her body was doing it to her.

Hell, she’d skipped out on the annual Stark 4th of July  _ and _ Thanksgiving celebrations this year alone — she was still too nervous about exposing herself to crowds. Tony knew something was up; it was only a matter of time before he cornered her and demanded an explanation. He’d already started with the guilt trips, the phone calls, the text messages.

Even Pepper had been asking after her.

So this brief reprieve was the calm before the storm, a reset before diving into the madness that was Stark get-togethers. Flipping on the light switches, she could hear someone call out her name down the hall.

“Dani?”

She smiled at the man with the messy of brown hair walking toward her, “Bruce.”

He was dressed in some loose gym shorts and a worn t-shirt. He followed Dani into the hardwood studio as she set down her mat.

“Looks like we had the same idea,” he chuckled. “Mind if I join you?”

“Please do,” she said. “I was just going to follow along to a video if that’s alright?”

He nodded, grabbing a mat from the bins at the room’s edges and setting it down a few feet away from her own. Dani dimmed the lights and stretched while the video loaded, trying to ease herself back into a level of calm she hadn’t seen in weeks.

Work was stressful, family was stressful. She merely needed to get back to her breath.

Throughout the flow, she snuck glances at the man beside her, so focussed on the fluid movements and paces he gracefully led his body through. Dani had never seen him like that, she realized. Natasha had the same look of concentration in sparring, or Clint had when he nocked an arrow. It was beautiful and poised, indicative of daily practice for probably several years.

She felt like Bruce was letting her in on a secret, a part of himself that few had seen before, and she was immensely appreciative he trusted her with that.

Suddenly feeling out of practice compared to Bruce, it brought a smile to her face. She was OK with it, as everyone’s practice and pace were different. If anything, his form and stability throughout some of the more challenging poses struck her. She wobbled through them herself, feeling a little off.

“Thanks for letting me crash your session,” Dani offered at the end of their cool-down meditation. “You must practice a lot.”

He was already spraying down the mat, looking up at her with a faint smile.

“Yeah, I try to find enough time to do it every morning. Sets up the rest of the day,” he admitted. “Yourself?”

“I’m out of practice,” she replied bashfully as she started rolling up her mat. “Clearly. But I usually try to do it a couple times a week.”

“Helps clear out the noise,” he said knowingly.

She nodded, understanding the subtext and thinking back to their last interaction.

Guilt wracked the back of her mind at that moment. She’d been so focused on her own issues that she hadn’t considered how Bruce or her brother might be faring to deal with the blowback from well, everything. She hadn’t even thought to ask.

Dani felt awful.

“How have you been doing?” Her voice was too awkward, too rushed, and she internally cringed at the sound of it.

Trying too hard to appease that guilt lodged deep in her head.

“Uh, you know. Tower life’s pretty good. Tony’s got me working on some interesting projects.”

He gave her a look as if inviting her to ask the question she really wanted to.

“Ha—has Tony been OK lately?” She struggled to say the words out loud, understanding she left him in a weird place when she moved back to D.C., “I know things were a little touch and go when I moved out.”

“You know how he gets with his work,” Bruce replied. “But he’s worried about you. Pepper too.”

The unspoken words said a lot more than him in the moment; Bruce was also troubled, not that he’d say it out loud. The guilt was back full force.

“Yeah, I guess I have the tendency to just cut myself off rather than tell people what’s going on,” she sighed, rubbing her face with her palms as if to wipe away the intrusive thoughts. “I just know everyone has their own shit, so I hate dumping mine on them.”

He gently nudged her arm, “I don’t think anyone feels that way, Dani. I can’t really speak for anyone else, and I know he’s not always the most open, but Tony would want you to go to him if you needed to.”

She met his brown eyes with gratitude, seeing the assurance there that he wasn’t just saying that because she wanted to hear it.

“Yeah,” she replied as the words clicked into place. “Thanks, Bruce. I’m just bad at the whole feelings thing.”

“Having been around Tony more than enough lately, I’m starting to think it’s genetic.”

She let out a breathy chuckle, “Probably.”

* * *

It was 8 AM by the time Dani made it to the common level kitchen for breakfast. Showered and dressed in leggings and an oversized sweater, she was trying to make herself comfortable by any means possible. Even if that meant wearing a sweater that completely dwarfed her frame.

_ Especially _ if she was wearing a sweater she could hide in.

She wasn’t sure if everyone was in town yet, or who exactly Tony had on the guest list, but when Dani got to the kitchen, Tony and Clint were sitting at the island having coffee. She actually had to double-take, pretty sure the only time she’d ever seen Clint up this early was because he had to be on a mission.

The looks on their faces, coupled with the abrupt silence, made it seem like she’d just walked into the middle of a conversation.

“The prodigal child,” Tony drawled. “You don’t call, you don’t write.”

Stark deflection was one of the easiest things to spot, and Tony offered her a prime example. She didn’t really want to push it — if Clint was telling him something out of her earshot, it was probably for a good reason.

“Didn’t want to spoil your present,” she said sarcastically. “Merry Christmas, Tony. I’m it.”

He harrumphed but seemed to let it go, shifting the conversation as he showed Clint some specs for a new set of arrows he was working on. Dani reached for the coffee pot, filling her mug and grabbing the stool beside Clint. It wasn’t long before Natasha took the one beside her, muttering some form of “good morning” under her breath. Even Bruce and Steve managed to find their way to the kitchen, leaning against the giant island with their own mugs and offering Dani a smile.

There wasn’t much above a murmur in the kitchen, just sips, slurps and the occasional coffee spoon clink as everyone got their caffeine fix of choice.

“Everyone’s very talkative this morning,” Pepper’s droll voice drifted over the newly-formed crowd in the kitchen, and Dani could see steaming trays of food being set down on a nearby table. “I’m assuming you don’t all subsist on coffee alone?”

“Thanks, Pep,” Tony kissed her on the cheek before setting down a stack of plates and cutlery beside the trays.

The kitchen was filled with clinking and chatter as everyone put together their superhuman-sized plates. Dani followed along with some of the nearby conversations but didn’t offer anything herself. She could feel Clint glancing at her from the corner of his eye, but didn’t turn to meet them.

Somehow his arm outstretched itself on the back of her chair, thumb brushing against the wool of her sweater.

“You OK?”

The words came out of the side of his mouth, barely audible to the rest of the table. Before Dani could get a response out, Tony was standing at the head of the table.

“So, in keeping with Stark family tradition,” Dani raised her eyebrows, “which I’m making up right now, we’re going to be playing a true, family classic of a Christmas movie.”

She snorted at her brother’s spiel and dramatic pause, and everyone’s heads turned towards her. Looking around at the wide eyes, she shrugged and filled in the blank on everyone’s minds.

“Die Hard?”

Tony offered a nod, and the whole table groaned.

But no one passed up sitting in the comfy screening room. The extra-wide recliners fit two comfortably, not that Dani had a say on who she sat with. Nat wasn’t one for sharing (her seat or her snacks), so Clint pulled Dani into his recliner, maneuvering a bowl of popcorn between the two.

“Better?”

“Much.”

They left it at that, sinking comfortably against the leather and each other. Dani’s eyes might have drifted a few times, body warm and cozy against Clint. She could vaguely feel his thumb circling her knuckles, arm propping her in place as her head found his shoulder.

Even with eyes closed, she could feel his chuckles reverberate in his chest as he watched the movie, pulling her further into sleep.

At some point in the evening, after Clint gently roused her and after the table was piled high with dinner, Nat started passing around mugs of spiked hot cocoa and eggnog. She gave the redhead a cocked brow, asking silently just  _ how _ spiked they were, but she knew that there was no use in asking with the twinkle in her eyes.

She gladly took a mug of eggnog and sipped away, rum melting into the background.

Dani felt more relaxed than she had in months. Surrounded by family and friends enjoying each other’s company and chats, she was warmed — and not just because of the alcohol. No one whisked her off to a private room to chew her out, no one brought up work, and no one pushed her in public situations.

She wasn’t sure if someone had said something to the rest of the group, but if they had, and this was the result, she was thankful.

“Hey, kid,” Tony sunk into the couch beside her, resting his forearm on her shoulder.

“Hey yourself.”

“Listen, I’m really glad you came for Christmas,” his voice was low, quiet enough to be drowned out by the rest of the group’s chatter. “I figure work’s been rough…for both of us, and you know I’m here for you, right?”

His eyes were searching hers, mirror images of worry and love and warmth. It took her a minute to find her voice, pushing back the tears that were threatening to spill.

“Yeah, I know.”

He nodded, holding her gaze for a few extra seconds as he rubbed her arm. She looked across the room to catch Clint watching the conversation carefully, but she shot him a small smile to tell him to stand down.

Apparently observing the exchange, Tony cleared his throat, “And uh— is there something I should know about you and Robin Hood over there?”

She shot him a look, surveying his expression to see if he was really concerned or if he was just playing big brother. It looked like the latter, his eyes twinkling slightly with mirth as he stared right back at her. He was looking to see if his hunch was right, but she wouldn’t give him the pleasure.

“No,  _ Dad _ ,” Dani replied dryly with a roll of her eyes.

“OK, OK,” palms up in surrender. “Well, I’m glad you have good friends.”

“Me too.”

* * *

At 2 AM, after the secret Santa gift exchange (she’d gotten Pepper, who she gifted a beautiful artisan jewellery set), she finally made it back to her suite. A little red package with a little white bow sat on top of her kitchen table. The spy had warned her that she left her gift at her place for a bit more privacy.

How she managed to get into the suite without her permission was always a mystery, but she wasn’t overly bothered by it.

Carefully tearing through the wrapping and peeling aside the tissue paper, she found a silver picture frame with a crisp white card on top. The short message was looped in beautiful cursive, shining even in the dim light in silver ink.

_ “May you never forget the bright spots in the dark. _

_ \- Nat” _

Her eyes crinkled at the sentiment, tears welling at the small but mighty gesture. It took all of Dani’s willpower not to cry as she lifted the card to see the framed photo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It wouldn't be fluff/angst without a little fluff.
> 
> This was a fun one to write. Actually, I've been working on the next few chapters simultaneously because they've been really fun to work on.
> 
> More later this week!


	7. Chapter 7

** January 3, 2014 **

“I know we said dive bar, but this… this is something else.”

The wonderment in Clint’s voice wasn’t lost on Dani. Tonight was a SHIELD night out, not a regular occurrence, but something that happened once in a blue moon when enough agents weren’t abroad on missions. Or, at least, that’s what she’d been told.

She’d never been invited to one before.

It had taken a lot of convincing from her friends for Dani to come along — after all, she wasn’t really an agent — but the night was bound to be a good time whenever Clint and Nat got together. So, she sucked up her pride and the fear of being in crowds for a potential fun night out. It helped that Clint had promised her a quick exit if she needed one.

Truthfully, that set her mind more at ease than Nat’s threat to pummel anyone who so much as looked at her the wrong way.

Tonight’s bar of choice looked like something out of the 80s —neon signs and stained posters lining the walls and all — and probably hadn’t been cleaned since. The music pounded over the dusty speakers propped up on the walls, favouring 80’s hair metal and some classic rock. Dani felt like she’d just stepped into some biker movie as they walked toward the front doors, leather jackets, jeans and t-shirts seeming to be the uniform, at least for those hanging out front, smoking and chatting.

“It was Maria’s pick,” Nat explained with a smirk as if that was supposed to explain its state.

“Well, I’m more surprised Fury let Hill off the leash for the night,” Clint mused with a smirk as they crossed the threshold.

Agent Hill was at the front of the group leading them in, and while she briefly shot Clint a vicious look, she was now looking around the crowded space with a little bit of pride. Dani had never seen her like this, so ordinary and informal. She could have sworn that was a genuine smile on her face, not the tight half-smile she’d usually share at the office.

Nat had mentioned in passing that Hill had been having a hard go at the office lately, so tonight was a planned post-New Years’ outing to help let off some steam. Not that anyone at SHIELD needed an  _ excuse _ to let off steam.

Even the doctor had noticed it had been a little tenser at the office than usual, even considering the agency was always stiff and tight-lipped. Ever since her annual assessment, she’d been glimpsing more holes and friction in the organization than ever before. A lot more reserved looks, cautious glances, less chatter in the hallways.

The tension was palpable, but Dani just assumed it was a problematic case going on behind the scenes.

Maybe restructuring?

There had been a lot of hushed whispers, the kind of office gossip that was dangerous at an intelligence agency. But, one could never really know if the information was being leaked out purposefully to weed out bad actors. So, Dani tried not to put much stock in any chatter, unless it came from someone she trusted.

“I remember when this place let you smoke inside, couldn’t even see the tables most nights,” Maria explained. “It’s been a regular SHIELD watering hole since even before the Triskelion was finished.”

Rows of green felted tables graced the floor, and too many people to count milled about, roaming the floor. Darts and pool; Clint must have been in heaven. The twinkle in his eyes at the prospect of getting to show off brought a smile to her face.

Nat bought the first round while Dani, Clint and Hill grabbed a pool table and set up. She spotted a few familiar faces already at play around the room. Bobbi was holed up playing darts in the corner, and Rollins wasn’t too far behind, chatting with another STRIKE team member at the bar. Not a uniform in sight. Everyone was dressed down in a rare showing of normalcy.

Still, it felt weird being around her coworkers without her white coat. Jeans and the well-worn plaid button-up she was wearing might have fit into the grimy bar, but she still out of place.

They managed to find an empty pool table, and Maria racked the pool balls at one end of the table.

“You play?” Clint asked as he handed Dani a pool cue.

“Growing up, a little,” she said, unsure how far that experience would go against the archer. “It’s been a while.”

Nat returned with a round of beers. Clinking bottles, they downed the first sip and played a few matches of pool. Dani was alright, middle of the pack with some decent shots, if not a little rusty. Clint, on the other hand, had a triumphant glimmer in his eyes the whole night. Angles and math were the bread and butter of his day-job, so it was no wonder he was sweeping them.

“Can’t fill out his paperwork worth a damn, but he can snipe the whole table in pool,” Hill muttered under her breath, making Dani chuckle.

“I feel like there’s a story there,” Dani offered, to which Hill smirked.

“Ask him about the time he tried to expense a Ferrari.”

“It was one time, OK!”

Either Clint had been reading lips or his hearing aids were set incredibly loud. Dani was betting it was the former. He shot the two brunettes a playful glare and hunched himself back over the table to take his shot. Nat chuckled beside him, covertly nudging his grip, so the cue missed its mark by an inch.

“Shark,” he shot at her.

It was nice seeing them all joke and tease outside of the office, especially Agent Hill. Dani watched Nat coax her out of her steel exterior with a few anecdotes (mostly at Clint’s expense), and smiled as her eyes sparkled when she told a few of her own. As if the rest of the room faded away in those moments, Dani was content.

Happy, even.

She took the next momentary lull to ask if anyone else wanted a drink, but they were all still working on their second (third?) beer. Headed toward the bar for a top-up, she couldn’t help getting lost in people-watching. Three bartenders behind the counter were slinging shots and brews to the waves of people leaning against the bar. People were yelling across pool tables, cheering and jeering at the dartboards, and there even looked to be a bachelorette party floating around.

Eyes drifting left to right, her breath hitched when she spotted a familiar face in the crowd. Brown hair, dark eyes, scruff. She could feel her whole body clench, breath trapped behind her rib cage and eyes wide. So much for that short-lived peace. Using every muscle in her body, Dani immediately turned on her heel, relatively sure she hadn’t been seen.

He hadn’t spotted her. She could breathe. She could breathe  _ normally _ , evenly. One in, one out. It was fine, no harm done. Dani could just turn around and walk away, and everything would be alright. She tried to will herself out of the impending flurry of thoughts.

_ Get out. _ Everything in her body was telling her to get out.

But someone caught her arm before she could bolt. She regretted the flinch she gave immediately as the person’s voice carried over the chatter and music.

“Are you OK?” Hill’s voice came in low and level.

She replied a little too quickly and a little too flatly, “I’m fine.”

Dani tried to shake it off, but couldn’t meet her eyes. She was embarrassed someone caught her in this moment, the ones she usually hid behind closed doors or close friends. Would she think less of her knowing Rumlow scared the shit out of her? No matter how irrational the fear was, it was real. Dani couldn’t keep pushing on like it wasn’t.

Hill sighed as if hearing her internal dialogue and kept looking her in the eyes.

“Listen, I’m not asking as your boss. I’m asking as a human being.”

Dani cautiously met her gaze and nodded, “I  _ will be _ fine.”

Hill nodded, expression a little softer as she gently clapped her on the shoulder and headed toward the bar. Clint was already watching her as she headed back to the table empty-handed. Dani felt her face flush as she tried to say (but only managed to stutter out) the reason.

“I-I think… I think I need to go,” she said finally, looking him in the face in case he needed to read her lips.

He started walking away from the table and towards the door, “I’ll take you—”

She caught him by the bicep, not wanting to ruin his night or take away from some well-deserved time blowing off steam. He was enjoying himself; she wasn’t his responsibility, as much as he seemed to put that on himself.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll catch a cab,” Dani assured him, mustering up her most decisive voice as she turned to face the door… only to come face-to-face with Bobbi Morse.

She was looking past Dani, dead in Clint’s eyes as she spoke with a small smile.

“None of that. I’ll take her,” her bright voice chimed in. “I’m DD for my team tonight anyway.”

Dani looked back Clint, whose jaw suddenly locked into place. They seemed to be having some sort of silent conversation, the kind that she sometimes caught him and Nat having. He didn’t say a word, just nodded at Bobbi as she stared him down with that same disarming smile.

Looks like the doctor didn’t get a say in the matter. Dani sighed, resigned to her fate. Bobbi walked her to the black SUV parked out front, arm not leaving her shoulder until she was safely in the passenger seat. The brunette felt silly, having to assist the agent who felt the need to step in.

She was sick of feeling like a damsel in distress, sick of the lurch in her stomach at every STRIKE team uniform she spotted in the Triskelion hallways, sick of feeling like she’d never get better.

“I didn’t know he’d be there,” Dani said finally, trying to explain why she was so weak.

That’s what it was. Weakness.

“I know,” Bobbi said soothingly with a soft smile. “No judgement here. Guy’s a creep.”

Her comment made the turning in her stomach settle a little, and she looked over at the blonde, concentrating on the road. Or maybe she was trying to give her space to process. Bobbi was more reserved than some of the other agents she worked with, finding answers in drawn-out silences.

Seeing an opportunity and wanting desperately to change the subject, Dani hedged her bets and figured it was a good time to finally ask her something that’d been on her mind for a while.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s the deal with you and Clint?”

The blonde offered a breathy chuckle and a smile, the kind you give when you get caught.

“I could ask you the same question,” Bobbi deflected with a raised brow.

Now it was Dani’s turn to flush, words caught at the back of her throat for much too long.

“We’re friends,” she tried to explain and decided to leave it at that.

Her eyebrow settled, and she looked almost relieved at avoiding  _ that _ conversation.

“I know,” Bobbi replied in concession with a half-smile. “We uh, used to be a thing. A while back.”

Dani nodded, figuring as much. They seemed to know each other quite well if they could silently communicate as well as Clint and Nat did. There were other subtle clues too; Bobbi never really asked about Clint, or if he came up in conversation, she’d generally change the subject. It went both ways, and it didn’t go unnoticed.

And then there was that conversation with Kate…

The words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them, “I didn’t know you had a Ph.D.”

“What?” Bobbi’s tone was more confused than upset.

Dani gave a guilty smile and a weak chuckle, trying quickly to conjure a way to explain the random question.

“Sorry, I met Kate Bishop. She kind of boiled down Clint’s love life to well-educated women.”

Bobbi’s confusion turned into a barking laugh as realization dawned on her.

“Um, well, yeah. In biology,” she explained, still laughing. “Bishop’s sure something.”

“That she is,” Dani agreed.

The rest of the ride was quieter. Looking over, Bobbi was chewing on her lip, as if she was trying to stop herself from saying something else. As if they hadn’t run the gamut of awkward conversations and exes. Dani’s face was still too warm, feeling guilty for her flub and for putting her friend on the spot.

Parked outside of her building, the brunette was just about to thank Bobbi for the ride when she finally spit it out.

“You know, he’s changed a lot since I really knew him,” Bobbi said quietly. “We just didn’t work out, it was a messy situation made worse by our jobs. But, there’s nothing wrong with him.”

The blonde was looking Dani in the eye now, just as serious as she was in the small meeting room months back.

She continued, “Clint’s a good guy —a little short on critical thinking skills sometimes, but good.”

She wasn’t quite sure why she was telling her this. Did she think Dani was looking for some kind of assurance? Did she think there was more than she was letting on between them? There  _ couldn’t _ be.

That was a non-factor, impossible and unattainable.

At least, if they both wanted to work at SHIELD.

Dani would be lying if she said she never thought about it. But they were daydreams of another life when she wasn’t his doctor and wasn’t working for a staunchly strict intelligence agency. Dani wouldn’t give it up for the world, this life she had, these friends. She couldn’t ruin this amazing thing she’d someone stumbled into.

And she was sure it was a one-sided thought process, no matter how much Kate or Bobbi or Nat joked with her. They were just jokes, and she knew from past experience that she was a better friend than any _ thing _ else to any _ one _ else.

So she’d just accepted it.

Accepted the familiar glances, occasional embraces, and short moments of (almost) forgetting their responsibilities.

Dani nodded dimly, letting the thoughts settle before unbuckling herself.

“Thanks for the ride, Bobbi,” Dani said. “And the chat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is set on Valentine's Day... and that's the only hint I'll be giving.
> 
> More coming this weekend!


	8. Chapter 8

** February 14, 2014 **

“This is some supreme irony, Barton.”

Dani only ever called him by his last name when he fucked up. And, boy did he.

Clint was all sorts of black and blue. His face was pocked with scrapes and bruising, and he was having a hard time holding up the left side of his body, arm hanging limply at his side. Dani could feel the discomfort in his expression as he flashed her a bashful, apologetic grin. Or whatever his face could manage at the time.

If this is what he looked like getting  _ out _ of medical, she didn’t want to know what he’d looked like walking in.

“I haven’t seen you in a month, and you happen to show up, in my office, like this, on Valentine’s Day?”

He shuffled through the doorway, awkwardly meandering through the room as she observed him. She was nervous he was about to keel over and wanted to be ready if she had to break his fall — or attempt to, rather.

“I was breaking in a new bow?” He offered unconvincingly.

“Yeah, sure,” she huffed, assisting him onto the exam room table. “A likely story. I’m sure the real one is way above my pay-grade.”

She cringed with his every hiss and groan, not even sure he was in good enough shape to be in her hands right now. But, if anything, it was better she identified anything now that she’d have to monitor the progress of going forward.

Goddamn it, Barton. What the hell did you do to yourself?

She was having a bad enough day as it was. She didn’t need this. Unsteady fingers helped him lift the shirt over his head, revealing more colourful bruising and stark white bandages.

“Jesus, Clint,” she exhaled sharply, testing his responsiveness by gentle pressing against the skin along his ribs.

“Your hands are cold,” he whined, taking her hands into his own.

He rubbed his warm hands against hers to reheat them, but she pulled away, instantly resuming her work. They couldn’t waste time, knowing how long it was going to take to make her way through his menagerie of injuries. He shivered slightly under her grasp as she surveyed him.

“Serves you right,” she sassed lightly, but there was no malice in her tone.

If anything, she was glad he was even able to  _ walk _ into her office at all.

His skin was tender to the touch, heated by inflammation around the wounds. Dani noticed some new scars littering his skin as she poked around and steered him through some movements. Tracing the lines of his stiff muscles and tendons under her fingers, she made mental notes. And while he started off very vocal with her prods, by the time she finished his back, his feedback had devolved into a weak moan.

“Enjoying yourself, are you?” She joked, intently gauging his expression.

“Not exactly the type of massage I had in mind,” he grumbled. “Trust me.”

She sighed, taking down some detailed notes in his file and instructing him on on-going care. There were a few tears, some strains and some mobility issues. Scientifically speaking, Clint was a mess… if that wasn’t already quite clear. Her eyes kept drifting over to his hunched over form on the table, staring at her work behind her screen. Trying to coax a smile out of her.

She leaned her face against her knuckles as she processed some things from behind her desk.

“Am I going to make it, Doc?” Clint quipped in a hoarse voice at her expression.

His blue eyes were exhausted and vivid, the red rims making the colour even brighter. Tired crinkles sunk deep at the edges of his eyes, and Dani suddenly wondered the last time he’d slept.

“Barely,” she shot back, face still straight to not give him the satisfaction of a smile. “Are you going to be able to get home?”

He hesitated, wringing his hands as he spoke, “I was just—“

She asked, but she’d already made up her mind.

“I’ll drive you,” Dani said without a second thought as she closed his file. “You’re my last patient today, and you’re lucky I took the car in this morning.”

He didn’t fight her. He knew better from her lack of banter. But still, Clint tried to get a rise out of her.

“Cap’s bike too good for you or something?” he smiled, but Dani knew he was just deflecting.

She replied soberly, “Trying to avoid a repeat in the press.”

Clint supplied a knowing look, looking slightly guilty at bringing it up as his face returned to neutral. She started gathering her things from around the room before aiding him off of the exam table. Observing for any wobbles, she looped her arm around his waist to steady him as they headed towards the door.

Setting Clint to lean against the wall, she quickly locked her office and turned to meet his gaze.

“My place or yours?” Dani thought about it for a split second before amending, “Do you even have food at your place?”

She knew he’d be in a lot more pain later if he didn’t have something. Best case, he ordered Chinese food and actually ate the vegetables. Worst case, he passed out on an empty stomach and woke up hurting worse than he did now.

He shook his head with a guilty grin, “Unless something mutated into food while I was gone for the last month.”

“My place then.”

She could feel him go rigid, stopping her in her tracks.

“Dani, I don’t want to put you out—”

“Clint, you and I both know that if I had some big plans, you and Nat’d probably know before I did,” Dani griped, maybe a little too frustrated. She sighed and willed her voice softer, “Just let me help you out.”

Another sideways glance from the archer before he nodded. Dani felt like she’d reversed roles with Steve when she had to buckle Clint into his seat, smiling slightly as she did. Clint shot her a raised eyebrow, but she shook it off and got behind the wheel.

“Sooo… how was work?”

She had been staring so intently at the road that she hadn’t noticed him fidgeting in his seat. Clint wasn’t one for silence in the best of times, but she’d gone and made his appointment awkward with her icy replies.

She breathed out a chuckle, “Sorry, it was a rough one today. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

“Well, you did make me promise to not make a habit of showing up black and blue,” he said with a smile. “So, I deserved some of it.”

She paused a beat, “Yeah, I guess you did.”

His smile broadened, and before long, they had arrived at her place. It was already dark out by the time they pulled in outside the building, not that it took much this time of year. Dani dropped Clint off out front with her key so he wouldn’t have to hike up quite as many stairs.

He could also get a head start and shower — though she’d had some doubts he was stable enough to do that. She found him alive (a good sign) and settled on her couch in a spare pair of sweats and a t-shirt he’d dug out of her top drawer. Head leaning back and eyes closed, she tried to be as quiet as she could, not knowing the last time he’d been able to rest.

Thankfully her cookware was already on the counter drying, so she didn’t have to rummage for it. She lit the stove, set up a pot full of water and started heating up the pan. Pasta was easy and a fan favourite, so she got to work without a word: oil, garlic, onion, diced tomatoes and some chicken breast for protein.

It was nothing fancy, but it was enough carb-wise to hopefully speed up Clint’s recovery.

Dani was so immersed in cooking that she didn’t notice Clint watching her until she reached over into a nearby cupboard for some serving plates. His expression was somewhere between curiosity and admiration.

“Hungry?”

“I could eat,” he said with a soft smile. “You didn’t have to cook. We could have ordered something.”

“It would have taken hours tonight,” she chuckled. “It’s Valentine’s Day, remember?”

His expression told her he didn’t remember, and her chuckle turned into a full-blown laugh. They ate dinner on the couch, Dani firmly instructing her friend not to even try to get up in his condition. The only sounds were the clinking of cutlery and Clint moaning into his pasta bowl.

“So good,” he groaned in a low rumble. “Best Valentine’s ever.”

“You’ve had worse Valentine’s than getting beaten to a pulp so bad you weren’t even able to drive yourself home?” She asked incredulously.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had someone make me dinner from scratch?” He said, sounding unsure. “And I’ve definitely been in worse scraps. At least, I’m pretty sure…”

“Is that you or the head trauma talking?” She said with a smile. “To be fair, this is probably the most romantic thing I’ve done on Valentine’s Day too.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never been wined and dined on the almighty heart-shaped holiday?” He smirked, eyes alight at the prospect of digging into her love life.

“Well,” she started, thinking back. “From recent memory, I’ve been dumped and walked out on one of the worst dates ever. The last time I got something for Valentine’s was probably in high school. I think it was a Care Bears card.”

He smiled so broadly he squinted, hand clapping on her thigh.

“We make quite the pair,” Clint laughed, clutching his ribs and groaning. “Oh, don’t make me laugh.”

“That’s going to be hard if we’re talking about dating histories or lack thereof,” she smiled, picking up the empty plates and setting them in the dishwasher. “Do you want an icepack?”

He groaned in response, so she wrapped the ice pack in a spare tea towel and brought it over to him. Clint hissed as she lifted the hem of his shirt and pressed it against his ribs. His hand wrapped over hers, and she flushed slightly, pulling away and walking back to the kitchen.

She cleared her throat, nervously, “Dessert?”

“What’s on the menu?” His face brightened up as he looked at her over his shoulder.

“Ben & Jerry’s?”

He beamed, “I knew you were my favourite for a reason.”

Setting the bowls down on the coffee table in front of them, they settled on a brainless comedy, just something in the background. Dani didn’t expect Clint to be awake much longer; his eyes were already drooping as he sat on the couch with her.

“So, I really did interrupt your V-Day plans, huh?” he said quietly, nudging his head toward the ice cream bowls.

“Oh yeah, just me, the TV and a pint of ice cream,” she said with a straight face.

He snickered, shifting so his legs were on the couch and head leaned on her bicep. He was a furnace on her side, a welcome escape from the draft coming in through the poorly insulated windows that lined her apartment. The lovely light she got during the days made for terribly cold evenings.

Clint’s arms enveloped her, still half-asleep by her count. She sank deeper into the couch, finding her own eyes hard to keep open between his body heat and his meandering touch. Fingertips lazily drew on her side, exposed by her ridden up t-shirt, before stopping suddenly at a raised edge.

Her breath hitched as she realized what he felt and stayed trapped in her chest as he examined the puckered skin.

“When did you get this?” his voice was gravelly, suddenly sounding more awake.

Dani was stock-still, scared that she’d either hurt him or look like she was hiding something if she moved. Well, hiding more than she actually was.

“Hmm,” she pretended to think about it.

Pretended that she couldn’t remember the day she got it in vivid detail. Every waking moment, every scar. Even the ones Clint couldn’t reach.

“I think I was eleven,” she settled quietly, feeling Clint tense beside her.

His hands hadn’t left her side, hovering just over the blemished skin like he was suddenly apprehensive. Afraid to set her off down a path she didn’t want to retread.

But he asked the question anyway. At this point, he must have known the answer.

“How does an eleven-year-old get a cigarette burn?”

His tone wasn’t hostile, it wasn’t prying, but she could feel his heart rate increase beside her.

Dani couldn’t lie to him; he didn’t deserve that. The last thing she wanted was to worry him, not about something neither of them had any control over. There was no use burdening others with stuff she’d happily left in the past, after all.

But, if she couldn’t be honest with Clint, who could she be honest with?

“Some guy my mom dated,” she murmured. “And no, Tony doesn’t know,” she added, anticipating his next question.

He leaned his forehead against her arm, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath in—hands resuming in small circular motions on her back, the soothing activity sending shivers down her spine.

She waited for him to ask her why she never said anything, why she acted like it was nothing, but it never came.

“My ol’ man was a piece of shit too,” he admitted privately. “To me and my brother.”

She didn’t even know he had a brother.

“I’m sorry.” She was. “I didn’t know.”

He looked up at her with those blue eyes she couldn’t tear herself away from. Beneath the bravado and the banter was this man, who had a hell of a lot more secrets than he was telling, but a good man, nonetheless. Bobbi had seen it, Nat knew it, and here she was, spilling one of her closely guarded secrets, only to have him offer up a piece of his own past in return.

Her stomach fluttered at the sad look in his eyes, hands drifting to meet his, now wrapped around her.

“Not your fault. I get it, though,” he sighed a little, body relaxing to a more natural state. “People like us gotta stick together,” he mumbled as he nuzzled himself into her arm.

It must have been a couple of hours later when she stirred next. The TV had long gone dark, and she wasn’t sure if either of them were genuinely awake or asleep. His arm still circled her waist, body pressed to her back on the couch with no sign of either of them wanting to move. Breathing level, even and in sync.

Even though he was black and blue and would have a hell of a time getting off the couch in the morning, she’d never felt safer. She could feel him stir slightly against her.

“Dani?”

“Mm?”

He murmured into her shoulder, barely audible in a sleepy voice, “You’re the best.”

She could only manage a half-smile, chin a little wobbly from his words. Dani was suddenly very glad her face was hidden from him, so he couldn’t see the sappy tears hiding in her eyelashes.

“Least I can do,” she tried to brush off in her most level voice. “By my count, I owe you a lot more of these considering the last couple of years.”

He pulled himself up slightly to look down at her, voice coming out a bit clearer now, “You don’t owe me anything. You know I’d do anything for you.”

She could only nod and hug his arms a little tighter as he settled back into the couch, unable to find words to say he wasn’t alone in that sentiment. A few minutes passed before he threaded his fingers between hers and, considering how level his breathing was, she couldn’t tell if he even realized he was doing it.

A tear slipped down her cheek, but she wasn’t exactly sad.

Dani knew two things at that moment, and she knew them very well: she had fallen hopelessly for something she couldn’t have, and even knowing that, she had never been happier.

“Goodnight, Clint.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably my favourite scene I've written for this series so far, so I hope you liked it.
> 
> Hope you're all hanging in there, safe and well.


	9. Chapter 9

** April 1, 2014 **

Today felt different, urgent.

All throughout the day, Dani watched people flit from office to office in the Triskelion, firm faces and sunken eyes. It was this nagging feeling at the back of her head that she couldn’t quite make out the full picture even though she’d seen pieces.

She could have sworn she’d already passed six STRIKE members in the halls, too many for her usual walk between the lobby and the med wing. The usually reclusive team was rarely topside in full tactical gear unless they were coming to or from a mission, and today no QuinJets landed or left the landing pad.

It sent her stomach reeling, but she couldn’t place why.

The gunshots coming from Steve’s place in the middle of that same night didn’t help.

She didn’t know what time it was and didn’t care; it sent her flying out of her bed in fear, head spinning as she tried to figure out where the sound had come from. Dani instantly went into fight or flight, pulling out her rarely used sidearm and snaking her way through the hallway towards Steve’s place. The door was already ajar.

“Steve?” She whispered, a few feet away from the door.

A blonde sat on the floor of his apartment, hovering over Director Fury’s body on the floor. Blood pooled beneath his back.

But before she could ask any questions or make herself known, someone wrapped their hand around her mouth and wrenched her backwards into the hallway. Her heart was racing out of her chest. She kicked her feet and struggled against the grip, but her attacker was solid muscle. They backed her against a wall around the corner from the open door and hushed her. She could barely hear it over the pounding in her chest.

She was just about to bite down on the hand clamped over her mouth when she met familiar blue eyes.

“It’s me,” Clint’s voice husked, and she could hear the breath catch in his throat as he glanced around the corner at the stairwell. “We need to go.”

She looked up at him, clad in a low-slung baseball cap, breath still trapped in her lungs as she spotted emergency personnel behind him. The dark bags under his eyes and longer than usual scruff didn’t go unnoticed. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. What was he doing here at this hour?

And why was he trying so hard for neither of them to be seen?

“Go where?”

He didn’t reply, merely grabbing her hand and steering her out of the hallway. With no time to think, he ushered her through the back exit, away from the incoming EMS. To be honest, she didn’t even know this building had a rear entry, but through an unmarked door and down the stairs they went.

That wasn’t his car sitting in the back alley. She didn’t know whose it was, only that he opened the passenger side door for her and ushered her in. When he finally got into the driver’s seat, she could only stare at him incredulously.

“Is this some kind of joke? What the fuck was—”

“Not yet. Put your hood on.”

Something in his tone made her snap her mouth shut, heart thumping against her ribs as she swiftly pulled her hood over her hair and slumped into the seat. Looking down, she was relieved she fell asleep in her sweatpants and t-shirt, clearly not expecting to be out on some unknown mission in the middle of the night. Her thoughts kept flashing back to Fury, laying on the floor, riddled with bullets.

Come to think of it, the wall had been too.

Had the window been broken?

A million questions danced around her head: Was this it? The big impending thing that had been weighing on the Triskelion the past few months? Was it a coup? What the fuck was he even doing in Steve’s apartment? And where was Steve for that matter?

She didn’t recognize the part of town they ended up in, only being able to make out the word “Diner” in the half-shattered sign outside the restaurant they pulled into. Clint cut the engine and opened the driver’s side door without a word, Dani quickly following suit.

“We’re going to go inside, get a table, and you’re going to go to the bathroom and wait there.”

It wasn’t a request, it was a demand, and the fact that it came from Clint’s lips made her even more jittery. Sure, they’d trained, they’d had conversations in passing about emergencies exits and escape scenarios, but nothing like this.

They slid into a booth at the back of the diner, florescent lights flickering above, and a speaker nestled in the corner above their seats. Clint sat across from her, flipping through the menu as the waitress came over with a coffee pot.

“Sorry, where’s the bathroom?” Dani asked, not quite looking her in the face.

“Just downstairs, hun,” she replied, pointing vaguely around the corner.

“Thanks.”

She beelined down the uneven stairs, ducking under the bulkheads above and making her way into the short and narrow basement women’s bathroom. Her mind was racing with possibilities as she paced back and forth in front of the open and empty bathroom stalls.

Was Steve OK? Was Tony OK? Was this an attack on the Avengers? Or was this all just something to do with SHIELD?

Her heart stopped as the door to the bathroom opened, but it was just Clint, who quickly locked the door behind him. He looked as frantic as she felt, eyes darting around the room before setting a phone on the edge of the sink and turning on some sort of white noise.

“Dani, you have to listen to me very carefully, OK? I’m going to tell you a lot of things really quickly, and I need you to follow me here.”

She nodded, eyes wide and blood thumping in her ears.

“There’s a lot of shit going on right now; tonight isn’t even the half of it. I’m pretty sure you’re being watched; a lot of us are.”

“My place is bugged?” She hissed, hand flying to her mouth in shock. “Holy shit.”

He nodded, “I don’t know how or by who exactly, but this is the plan.”

His hands rested lightly on either side of her neck, holding her face in place to look at her as he talked in a low voice. Blue eyes stared with the intensity of someone trying to snap someone out of shock. She knew that look too well, having been on that receiving end too many times to count.

She nodded, trying to look alert as her mind raced, urging him on.

“You’re going to wake up in the morning at your usual time, and you’re going to call in sick to work—all week. You’re going to stay in your apartment and act sick. Couch. Kitchen. Bathroom. Bedroom. Don’t do anything you wouldn’t do if you were actually out with the flu.”

Well, considering how much she wanted to puke right now, that shouldn’t be too hard to fake.

He handed her a burner phone, “You’re going to keep this on you at all times. Hide it. Hide your gun in the couch or in your bed, but make sure it’s out of view.”

“Are there  _ cameras _ ?”

The thought sent shivers down her spine. Was someone in the Triskelion sitting there monitoring her in her apartment?

“I don’t know. We have to play it safe here,” his grip on her neck tensed. “Whatever you do, don’t answer the door. Please tell me you understand. I need you to do this. I need you to be safe,” he implored, voice slipping into something more akin to a wounded plea.

Her arms hung lamely at her sides, brain completely fried with the information Clint had just dumped on her. Why was she in the middle of this? Why her?

“What then? I just wait?”

He nodded, leaning his forehead against hers.

“I will come to get you, Dani. I don’t know when, but I will. And if anything changes, I’ll use that phone,” he pointed to the one in her hands. “There’s only one number in there, it’s mine. You need to call me if anything happens at the apartment, OK?”

It was a lot. It was too much. Was she even going to be able to remember all of these details outside of this dingy bathroom? Her breathing was ragged, her eyes were all over the place, quickly filling with tears as she settled into the knowledge that they were in danger.

Like, real, actual life-threatening danger.

Hands at her biceps, his expression softened, “Hey, hey. It’s going to be alright.”

“How do you know that?” She choked out. “What about Steve? Nat? Tony? Fury?”

“Steve’s fine,” he soothed. “Nat is fine, and Tony will be perfectly safe at the Tower.”

She didn’t miss the fact that he didn’t address Fury, and she could feel the lump in her throat growing bigger by the second.

“What about you?” Her lower lip trembled as she looked into those scared blue eyes, giving way to tears that had been threatening to fall.

That was the first time she’d really seen Clint afraid since the Incident. Anger, concern, worry, sure. But fear, that was something he’d rarely let seen.

“Hey, I’ll be fine,” he hushed, trying to blow it off. “This is my job. My job is to keep you safe, OK?”

Someone pounded on the door, making Dani jump. A voice called through the door.

“Hello?! I need to pee.”

“Shit,” Clint mumbled as he wiped the tears off her face. “Follow my lead.”

Ruffled her hair and pulled at her sweater to drag it slightly off her shoulder. He wrapped her in his arms and pulled her head into the nape of his neck and chuckled somewhat as he walked them both out the bathroom door like two lovers caught in a compromising situation.

“Sorry, lady,” he growled at the lanky woman standing outside the door with a smirk.

Making their way upstairs, they promptly walked out of the diner and walked through the dark parking lot, the smile wiped clean off Clint’s face. Dani realized she was shivering, teeth chattering as they walked to the care. Trembling hands drew her sweater tighter around her, trying to get rid of the cold deep in her bones.

“I’m sorry you’re in the middle of this,” Clint whispered in her ear, arm still tightly wrapped around her. “I know it’s scary, but I need you to just stick to the plan and trust me.”

Without missing a beat, she said, “I trust you.”

She did.

He dropped her off two blocks from her place without another word on the plan, just the understanding that she wasn’t sure when she would see him again.

But what Dani told him was true. She trusted Clint more than she trusted anyone besides Tony and Pepper, and that said a lot. Winding her arms tightly around him before she got out of the car door, she felt him tense in surprise at her whisper in his ear.

“Be safe.”

She knew better than to let a goodbye slip through her fingers, not when there was so much at stake. So, Dani was too scared to look back, withdrawing her arms and slipping out of the car. Afraid that if she did, she wouldn’t be able to leave him behind.

Dodging paramedics and police, even a couple of SHIELD agents, she tried to not be seen as anything more than a confused resident. Using the flashing lights and occupied agents to her advantage, she wove through the murkier spots and slipped up the same steps they had exited. She even waited until the hallway was clear before walking back into her dark apartment.

Leaning her back against her front door once locked, she wanted nothing more than to sit there and cry. But she couldn’t. She was being watched, and she couldn’t screw this up.

Couldn’t make this harder for Clint and the rest of the team than she already had.

So instead, Dani ended the night knowing just as much as she had going into it, with even more questions. Slipping into bed like nothing had happened and staring at the ceiling, wondering in a bout of self-pity if she’d ever have a normal year.

Just one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Self-isolation putting anyone else in some sort of mood lately? I feel like the past week has been the roughest for me in a while.
> 
> Take care of yourselves out there. I hope you're all safe and well.


	10. Chapter 10

**April 2, 2014**

Dani spent the first morning at home on the couch, eyes closed and terrified, just waiting for someone to burst through the door. She didn’t eat, she couldn’t sleep, and she kept eyeing every nook and cranny of her apartment for anything out of the ordinary.

The fact that she couldn’t find anything out of place or unusual freaked her out even more.

She stayed dressed, something she wouldn’t normally do at home, but after the night before’s adventure, she realized she didn’t want to be escorted out of the house in ratty comfort clothes.

Pepper called that afternoon, and Dani let her chatter about updates on her end, slowing her heart rate down to a reasonable limit. Sheets, comforter and blankets rumpled beneath her, she sat on her bed, back pressed firmly to the headboard as she stared at her bedroom door. She towed the usual lines about work being busy and not feeling well, but Pepper seemed glad that she wasn’t working herself to the bone.

If only she knew.

Minutes after they’d both hung up, a message came through on her cellphone. Her breath caught in her chest as she read the text preview on her lock-screen.

_SECURITY ALERT: Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) suspects at large. If sighted, cont…_

Dani had never unlocked her phone so fast in her life. Her heart dropped as she scrolled through the more detailed memo that had just come through her work email. There was a man-hunt out for Steve and Nat.

What the hell was going on?

It was another sleepless night that bled into the second day, when she started to wonder if Clint would even make it to her place. This was so much bigger than her, so much bigger than some SHIELD doctor who happened to live two doors down from a national icon. If this was about Steve, if something was really awry at SHIELD, she should be the least of anyone’s worries.

She wondered if she was even worth worrying over. 

Sure, she was Tony Stark’s half-sister, and sure, it might be a security risk if she was compromised, but she was so _small potatoes_. It was a tiny voice in the back of her mind, the kind that comes with being alone with your thoughts for too long in a space much too small to hold all the worries and memories that come with being on your own.

She tried to find anything to ground herself with, something she could connect with, something that could take her mind somewhere else for a while.

The silver frame in her lap was the only physical photo she had in the whole apartment. She spent more nights than she’d ever admit staring at it, lost in thought and daydreams of memories that would never happen. Alternate universes and timelines where she wasn’t such an idiot, wasn’t so stubborn, wasn’t so closed off to possibility. 

She knew she should let it go, the daydreams and the wishes. The childish sensibilities that she slipped into when she still thought she was an only child. They were going to get her attached, hurt, put her and the ones she loved in danger.

Instead, she slipped the frame into the leather weekend bag she hid behind a panel in a cupboard in the front room.

**April 4, 2014**

It was Friday morning when she heard clanking outside her windows. She’d gotten a few hours of sleep, she assumed, but wasn’t tired at all. Sunlight streamed in, she could see the sun high in the sky, could hear birds chirping, sirens in the distance… She stiffened where she lay on the couch and listened harder.

Someone was on the fire escape. 

Heavy boots thudded down — no, up — the rusty steps. Dani held her breath as she reached her hand between the couch cushions, finding the handle of her gun. She squeezed her eyes shut and said a silent prayer, something she hadn’t done since her teenage years.

Fuck, she hoped she didn’t have to use the gun.

Ears searching for anything beyond the typical noise drifting up from the street and the pounding in her ears, she was certain this was it. She wasn’t particularly visible from the fire escape landing on the couch, but if they had infrared or cameras, she was a sitting duck. 

That said, she’d likely _already_ be dead if they wanted her dead, in that case.

Great, yeah, go ahead thoughts. Let’s go there.

“Dani.”

She recognized that voice, but she drew her weapon anyway, finding Clint in full STRIKE tac gear, minus the helmet, with his hands up, one holding his bow. Her grip was firm, but her arms shook slightly as she leaned them over the back of the couch, still aiming.

“It’s OK. It’s just me. You can lower it,” he soothed in a collected voice, much too calm for someone with a loaded weapon pointed at them.

How did he get in? All the windows and doors were closed and locked, but there he was, and as soon as she saw his face, the pain felt as fresh as on the day he spirited her away to that diner. She wasn’t about to ask. 

From the look on his face, they were in a hurry.

“Are you supposed to be here? What about the—?”

“Jammer,” he explained, tapping his left ear. “I’ll be deaf until we get to the car, but as long as you sign or speak directly to me, it’ll buy us some time.”

She pulled herself off the couch and started heading toward the door to get her shoes on. He shadowed her, watching her back as his blue eyes darted between the windows. Backed against the wall beside him, she could see how tense his jaw was.

But she’d already known this was bad. In all of their time together over the years, she’d never witnessed him willingly go without his aids. 

She stared down at the leather bag in his hand, forehead creasing in confusion. Had she just zoned out? When did he have time to fish that out of the sideboard?

“Good to go?” He asked slowly, suddenly in front of her face and watching her expression carefully.

“Uh, yeah,” she replied, regaining her voice. “How do you know where my go bag is?” 

He flashed her a look that screamed _really_?

“Never mind, I don’t need to know.”

“Phone?” he asked with an open palm and a quirk at the corner of his mouth.

Knowing he didn’t mean the burner, she placed her personal phone in his hands and watched as he disconnected the battery, removed the SIM card, and snapped the screen in half. 

“We’re going to take your car,” he informed her, ignoring the perplexed expression she had as she reached for her keyring, hanging by the door. He snatched the keys out of her hands, which she realized were shaking enough to jingle them. “I don’t think you should be driving right now.”

A tug at her arm towed her away from the door, where she assumed they were heading, and toward the windows.

“Fire escape.”

Clint was in work mode, communicating just enough to get her where she needed to be so he could focus on watching out for any impending risks or threats. He was on a job, on a mission. This was him in his element.

Climbing through the window, she said a silent goodbye to her apartment, not sure if she’d ever see it again. And down the stairs they climbed, passing two incapacitated STRIKE agents passed out on the steps and on the ground below with arrows sticking out of their bodies at odd angles. Dani wanted to vomit, nausea rushing through her at the realization that she _had_ been watched, they had been close enough to take her out if they wanted to. 

And who knew how long they’d been there.

Her hand flew to her mouth, but she couldn’t stop now. She had to keep going, they had to get the hell away from here. Clint unlocked the door to the garage for her, pressing her up against the wall out of view as he carefully pried open the door and peered within. With a wave of his hand, they were inside, sliding into her car.

He reached into pockets and pulled out his hearing aids, popping them back into place and flicking them on. With a turn of the key, the ignition started smoothly and they were off before they knew it. Dani just sat there in silence, too stunned to talk and not sure what to say if she could.

“You OK?”

How was she supposed to answer that? Yes, she’s OK considering the fact her friend’s apartment was broken into, big time director of SHIELD was shot to death in the middle of the night two doors down from her, Clint had broken into her place, taken out (at least) two STRIKE team members and now they were probably having to get the fuck out of dodge?

Yeah, just peachy.

She ignored his question and asked her own, “Is this why you’ve been gone for so long?”

His eyes narrowed, watching her face carefully. When she didn’t budge, he nodded and took a deep breath.

“My cover. Fury was publicly on my ass for me beating the shit out of Rumlow. Apparently he deserved it a fuck of a lot more than I realized at the time,” his breathy chuckle seemed out of place considering the context. “He had me doing a lot of recon, wrapping up some loose ends. There was a lot to do.”

“And Steve? Nat?” her voice cracked slightly at the last name, her breathing becoming a little more shallow at the thought.

“I don’t know, Dani. Fury doesn’t tell anyone everything. I’m not to sugar coat this for you, from what I know, it’s bad,” he sipped more air, and she realized her hand was clutching onto his, resting neatly on the gear stick, for dear life. “Dani, there’s so much happening behind the scenes, but they have to compartmentalize to stay safe.”

“So now what?” Her voice crackled, suddenly hoarse with a tight throat and teary eyes to match.

Her iron grip on Clint’s hand was the only thing keeping her level enough to form words at this point.

“Now I get you to safety, and we wait for them to make contact.”

“Who’s them?”

“Right now? Cap, Nat and Hill.”

“For now?”

“I don’t know how long anything is going to last right now. This changes everything, _today_ changes everything. SHIELD is Hydra. SHIELD is dead, Dani. It’s all over.”

She knew, she knew that’s what they had been dancing around the whole chat, but the realization hadn’t really set in. 

Not when they crossed state lines. Not when they pulled off the highway into the driveway of a run-down motel. Not when Clint hopped out and swiftly changed the car’s plates in the unsupervised corner of the parking lot.

Not when Clint had to open the passenger door for her, because none of it was registering.

They made it over the threshold of the motel room before she could say anything. The only two words she could think of.

“Thank you.”

He could have easily left her behind, let her walk into work that day. She wasn’t an agent, she wasn’t an executive. She was just Captain America’s neighbour, his doctor, their friend. Sure, Clint Barton went out of his way to protect his own, she knew that, but seeing it in action still set a lump in her throat.

She tried her best to keep it at that, but his brows were furrowed, his eyes full of concern and he was still in his tac gear, looking like any other day when he’d just gotten off some sort of mission. She knew how much he risked being here, doing this, going against everything he ever worked for.

He broke first, or so Dani tried to convince herself, gathering her into a tight embrace.

There were no tears; she just sank into his grip, breathing in his scent and clawing her fingers into the back of his shirt for some semblance of feeling. If he had said anything, she couldn’t hear it, too grateful to have her friend back and too lost in the moment.

He pulled her down onto the edge of a bed, fumbling for the remote on the nightstand and turning on the TV. Flipping channels until he landed on a news network, Clint was waiting for something, she could tell. It looked like an average news day, tension in the middle east, weather forecast, sports and then all of a sudden a breaking news headline flashed on the screen.

_”We’re now going live to D.C. where there have been reported sightings of an international terrorist being dubbed the Winter Soldier. Reports are coming in that the SHIELD headquarters is under attack. We’ll bring you more on this breaking news story as we confirm the details.”_

It was all downhill from there. Shaky cell phone shots of agents firing on each other on the flight deck, three Helicarriers flying into the sky above the Triskelion. A dark-haired man with a metal arm raining fire down on Steve and some guy with mechanical wings.

“Tony,” the brief realization hit her like a tonne of bricks. “He was already worried…”

She remembered the frantic texts asking what happened to Cap after the SHIELD alert came through. JARVIS no doubt would have alerted him to this kind of news coverage. What if he thought she was there? 

What if he did something stupid?

“We’ll try to get word when we can, OK?” Clint squeezed her arm. “But I don’t know what this is going to shake up, so we have to be careful.”

She found herself sucked into the coverage, craning her whole body towards the TV in a slouch. Clint sat silently beside her, watching her and the screen. He got up at the next commercial break, passing her a bottle of water and a protein bar. 

His subtle way of reminding her to take care of herself. 

From the corner of her eye, she could see him watching her, eyes darting to her hand every time a tremor gave way. Dani was deep in thought, struggling to come up with the words to ask what she needed to know without sounding pathetic or ungrateful.

“Why me?”

“Huh?”

“Why did you pick me up? Why was I even under surveillance?” 

A deep frown set in his face as he looked at her. Clint had only ever given that look to her once before, in Happy’s hospital room. It was the look a parent gives their child when the realize they world’s a scary place and the fear of growing up sets in. 

Trying to distract her, he clutched her hand, rubbing his thumb back and forth over her knuckles.

“They thought you were close to Steve,” he explained softly. “STRIKE thought you two might have been a _thing_. Plus, with the Tony connection and all… I think that’s why Rumlow had it out for you.”

“They knew about Tony?”

The lines in his forehead deepened, and he sighed, looking down at the worn duvet they were sitting on.

He nodded, “And everyone’s about to.”

“What?”

He rubbed his face with his hands as if he’d been dreading this moment.

“I’m sorry, Dani, I don’t want to lie to you. All of SHIELD’s secrets are about to be public,” he said, adding, “Encrypted, but public.”

It was like Clint had just ripped off a bandaid — no, duct tape — on this quiet life she’d had. 

Well, _quiet_ by SHIELD standards.

Scrambling to make sense of what exactly could be released, she prayed to god that no one would be seeking out HR files, spotting the emergency contacts in her notes or… any of the other hundreds of notes in her files that she herself would likely never have seen.

Shit.

This was a whole new level of personal. The nausea was back with a vengeance, bubbling up through her throat. She yanked in head in between her knees, trying to deal with the impending head rush and headache.

Breathe. She had to breathe through this. Clint’s voice was just rising over the ringing in her ears. Calloused fingers at her back, near her neck, skin on skin. She could see the room. Could feel the carpet. Hear the beating. Smell the cigarettes. Taste acid.

“You’re OK,” the low voice said the words like a mantra, repeating it to the brunette, who was shaking like a leaf but starting to breathe again.

He urged her to drink some water, eat some of the bar, get something in her before she keeled over. Eventually, she let Clint lay her back onto the bed, eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling. The only movement is her chest, her hand over her heart as she feels it rising and falling with each breath.

A buzz on the TV stand makes her jump, jolting her out of her exercise, but Clint’s too busy pressing a button on his hearing aids to notice.

“Yeah. She’s fine. Did you get a hold of—?”

Dani stared at his face, looking for any expression to read, but Clint was too good at this.

“Four, but it was a clean break.”

Sorry, did he just say he took down _four_ agents? Where were the other two?

“Shit. Where?”

Now he was worried, making Dani’s chest tighten. 

“Yeah, we’re coming to you.”

Clint turned to Dani with a too-calm expression, like he was working extra hard to keep his face completely neutral. 

It did nothing for her nerves.

“We’ve gotta go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mystery continues... 
> 
> Some more long chapters coming your way! Next one on Friday or Saturday.


	11. Chapter 11

**April 4, 2014**

They had a long ride back to D.C. ahead of them. Dani hadn’t noticed just how far out they’d driven. It left her with time to ask Clint about some of the finer details from the past few days. Seeing the news coverage only supplied her with more questions as to what was really going on.

“So why did we drive all the way out here? Wherever _here_ is…”

“I needed to make sure we weren’t followed, because even if the team completed the mission, we didn’t know if Hydra would try to retaliate,” Clint replied.

It wasn’t lost on her that he neglected to mention where they were.

“And what would have happened if they _didn’t_ complete the mission?” she asked gently.

He bit his lower lip. Her throat went dry at his brief silence.

“It wouldn’t have mattered where we were; I’d be dead and you’d be as good as dead.”

The rest of the ride was silent on her end. She didn’t want to ask anymore questions after that terrifying answer. Clint happily filled the silence with less scary details, looking over at her occasionally as if to check she was still OK.

He told her they were heading to the hospital, giving her a quick run-down of Steve and Nat’s status. They were both alive, Nat a little injured, but it was Steve that took the biggest beating. 

Dani couldn’t imagine Captain America being injured enough to be unconscious in some D.C. Hospital. She’d read his file. She’d heard stories of the man jumping out of planes without parachutes, so the idea of him being too weak to open his eyes was earth shattering.

As if sensing her anxiety, Clint piped in, “Steve’s being guarded; it’s the safest place for any of us to be right now.”

But it didn’t make her feel any better about the situation.

He was still decked out in his bulletproof STRIKE vest, eyes still assessing every single car at every stoplight. He was still on. It wasn’t over yet, she knew that. The effects of today would probably ripple through the next year or two at least.

No intelligence agency is going down without defectors escaping and having bones to pick.

Once they got to the hospital, he escorted her in, clasping her hand as he led her into the building. She noticed his pace slow and head turn at every corner, glimpsed him glare straight through every passerby in the hallway until they reached four armed security guards at the end of a hallway.

“They’re good.”

A gruff voice called out from behind the guards, revealing a man with a gap-toothed smile at the end of the hall. A little bit of visible bruising, a clean light blue plaid shirt and a bomber jacket. 

Was this the guy with the wings? Not exactly what Dani was expecting, but the kind face didn’t take away from the fact this guy was clearly military — his stance gave him away. 

They walked towards him, Clint’s arm already outstretched in greeting and he shook it firmly.

“Clint Barton,” the blond introduced. “This is Dani.”

“Sam Wilson,” the man replied with an awestruck expression. “Never thought I’d get to meet the infamous Hawkeye. Dani, right? How do you know Steve?”

Bypassing Clint and looking straight at her, she could feel the archer tense into their still-joined hands. She was suddenly nervous, not quite sure how to explain her part in this, and still feeling bad she had taken Clint out of the fight to begin with.

“I’m—I _was_ , head physical therapist at SHIELD,” she managed to stutter out. “I uh, guess I don’t really _have_ a job right now,” she realized out-loud.

Clint’s gaze drifted to the right of them, revealing an open observation window into a hospital room. In the bed was Steve, cuts framing his lips, swollen right eye, watercolour purple marks strewn across his body. His blond hair like he just got out of a windstorm, and Dani realized she’d never seen Steve so undone.

“He’s been in an out for a little bit. Docs say he’s doing fine,” Sam explained as they stared.

Her breath hitched in her chest.

“Can we…?” She pointed towards the glass, hoping Sam caught her drift.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.”

She thought she heard him offer her a seat, but she was done with sitting and too focussed on Steve to process much of anything. She squeezed his hand, warm and limp on the blanket. He was alive, that was good. That was the important part.

Her friends were OK.

There was conversation between Clint and Sam that she couldn’t really make out, finding herself drifting, eyes wandering towards the nearest escape routes. Watching as doctors and nurses passed by the armed guards in the hall outside. Heart beat steady. No threats, she assured herself. Just a lot of background noise from the men’s chatter and the hospital room noise.

She was safe, she knew that somewhere, but it was hard not to be suspicious after her whole organization turned out to be built on lies.

“Jesus Christ, Steve. What did you get yourself into?” She muttered under her breath, cataloging the visible damage.

A twitch. An eye flutter. A tense in the hand she’d been holding. 

She thought she’d just imagined it.

“I kept my promise,” he replied hoarsely, making Dani jump. His eyes cracked open, making her realize he’d been staring at her through his eyelashes. “I didn’t end up in your office.”

Dani squeezed his hand, the watery smile on her face giving way to the tears that had been hiding among her lashes.

“You know damn well that wasn’t what I meant,” she scolded jokingly, voice cracking as she wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “You had us all worried.”

Steve looked around at the room, one eye still too swollen to fully open and gave a smile to the two men. “Sam, Clint.”

“Hey man, glad to see you’re up,” Sam offered softly.

Clint merely nodded in reply, jaw still tense, eyes darting between Steve and Dani before settling down on the phone in his hands. Reading the screen, he offered Dani a sympathetic look.

She didn’t like that expression on his face. It looked like he was about to deliver some bad news.

Realizing three sets of eyes were now looking at him, Clint cleared his throat and explained, “Change of plans. I’ve gotta go. Dani, let’s go get your things out of the car.”

Dani offered Steve an apologetic look and took Clint’s outstretched hand, letting him guide her out the door. She waited until they were in the hallway before pulling on his arm, forcing him to face her and asking in her smallest voice, “You’re leaving?”

A frown tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“Nat’s going to take over. She’ll take you to the airport tonight,” her gut churned at the realization that he wasn’t going to stay with her. “I’m sorry, Dani. I need to help tie up some loose ends.”

Guiltily, she wished he didn’t have to go. It was greedy, she knew that, but having him here beside her, whenever he was near, was the safest she’d felt her whole life. Even if the world was crumbling around them, this connection, this contact, this comfort, it was a relief. 

One that was about to be stripped away from her again.

“When… when am I going to see you again?” She hated how weak her voice sounded.

“I’m going to meet you in New York,” he replied firmly.

She looked away, not wanting her expression to hurt him. He was only doing what he had to do, this was his job. It wasn’t fair for her to be upset at him for doing his job. He reached up to tilt her chin back towards him.

“Hey, I promise. I don’t know when I’ll be done, but I’ll be there,” he sounded resolute, more assured than she felt. “Until then, I need you to listen to Tony and stay safe.”

They made it to the parking lot in silence, Dani’s mind whirring as she processed everything. 

SHIELD was Hydra.

SHIELD was dead.

She had no job.

And she was going right back to where she started this odd part of her second life in New York. Without Clint.

It wasn’t until he hauled her bag out of the trunk that it really set in. He leaned against the side of her car, leather bag sitting at his feet. He might have been talking to her, she truthfully hadn’t heard a word of it if he had.

“Well, goodbye?” Clint looks uncertainly at her, arms open for a hug as she stared vacantly at his face. Mistaking her hesitance for fear, he added, “You’ll be fine, Dani. Nat will be here any minute, and I’ll see you in New York.”

SHIELD is done, and she got one more goodbye with Clint.

She couldn’t not take this chance while she had it.

She didn’t know when she’d get it again.

Dani launched herself into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and breathing him in. She squeezed back, and could feel the chuckle reverberate against them. Hands on his chest, she pushed back just enough to tilt her head up towards him. She held herself there for a couple of seconds, marvelling at the curiosity twinkling in his blue eyes. 

She was both getting up the nerve and seeking permission. 

Closing the gap, she pressed a chaste kiss to his lips, and the small spark sent a jolt through her system. She hoped he’d felt it too. 

Testing the waters as she quietly pulled back and observed his expression, unsure if she’d made the right move. She watched as his eyes slowly opened, it felt like slow motion, those ocean blues staring back at her in shock.

It was a risk, she knew it was straddling a well-established (if not unspoken) line. 

But it was less of one than it ever had been before, ironically, considering their entire world had toppled in the last 72 hours. She couldn’t just let him leave. 

She was just about to apologize when his fingers threaded through her hair, pulling her back in for a longer embrace and capturing her lips. It was urgent, it was sweet, it was perfect. 

Butterflies tore through her stomach at the intensity of the moment.

The way his scruff caught the skin around her mouth, the way his hand found her lower back and drew her in. The way her feet momentarily left the ground as she was spun and leaned against the side of the car to deepen the kiss.

It left her completely breathless.

He looked at her in adoration, hands unmoving from their positions as they stared at each other, noses almost touching. Warm breath across her cheek. A glimmer in his eyes.

She could get used to this.

“So… that was nice,” he trailed off, a little confused, but still smiling. 

“Gotta leave you with something to come back to?” she offered, trying to answer the unasked question.

His grin broadened, thumb trailing along her cheekbones as he stared at her in amazement? Joy? Curiosity? It was hard to gauge. Her heart was racing too fast to know if this was a dream or reality and she suddenly felt like she was floating.

“And this?” he seemed a little less sure now, eyebrow furrowed slightly as he watched her. “This isn’t just because—?”

“Because we’ve been living out The Bodyguard for the last week? No, this is _us_ ,” she replied softly. “If you want it.”

She didn’t need a label beyond that right now, she didn’t need a promise, or three little words. It was enough to know that he wanted this, whatever it was, when he returned to her. 

Her heart stopped in that moment as he leaned down and pecked her on the lips in reply, breathing softly against her lips, “I’ve always wanted it.”

She hugged his tightly, breathing in his scent and trying to tuck the memory away for later, when she wouldn’t have him so close. Sure, it made the goodbye harder, but Clint always kept his promises. 

He’d be there, she’d see him again.

“You going to bring my car back in one piece?”

He kissed the top of her head, “I’ll try. See you in New York.”

And with that, he took off, leaving her in front of the hospital with her leather bag and a smug looking Nat. The redhead looked on from in front of the automatic doors of the entrance, arms crossed and eyes hidden behind sunglasses.

“How much did you see?”

“Enough,” she said with a smirk. “Not so oblivious after all, I see?”

Her face was suddenly on fire, “Oh, shut up.”

“What? It’s cute,” Nat smiled, a real one. “I’m happy for you.”

Noticing just how tired and run-down her friend looked up close, Dani couldn’t bring herself to smile back. Reality was hitting hard after her fairy tale moment. Sure, she’d see Clint again, but she still had to deal with the rest of the fall-out. 

The spy took note of the drop in her expression, and as if reading her thoughts, supplied, “I’m sorry you had to be in the middle of this.”

Dani knew what she meant. Between the surveillance, STRIKE, all of the SHIELD files that had been loosed onto the world, there was going to be a big mess to clean up. She nodded, knowing she meant it.

“It’s not your fault. I’m just glad you and Steve are OK,” she said, pulling her friend into a gentle hug, no knowing how sore she was under her clothes.

“Have you met Sam?” Nat asked, stretching an arm over Dani’s shoulders as they walked into the building.

“Yeah, I was still pretty out of it, though,” she replied, feeling kind of bad about the rushed introductions. “Steve was awake, though.”

“That’s good,” she sounded relieved at the thought.

The guards waved them through at the sight of the spy, and they both made their way into the hospital room. Steve was asleep again, eyes closed and body still. Sam shot Nat a concerned look at the two of them, but the spy shook her head.

“Sorry I’m not the best conversationalist right now,” Dani offered quietly to Sam. “I never asked, how did you meet Steve?”

“I uh, ran with him a few times. Tried to keep up, at least,” he chuckled softly at the memory. “I lead sessions at the local VA for vets working through PTSD.”

For some reason his simple, heartwarming answer hit her like a dump truck.

The lump in her throat returned at his reply, stirring up memories she didn’t know she was still hanging onto. She blinked away some tears she hadn’t noticed forming as he talked, shifting her hands into her pockets to avoid the tremors being visible. Natasha squeezed her arm around her a little tighter, hovering in case she broke.

He seemed to notice her discomfort, “I’m sorry, if that was—“

“No,” she tried to put on her strongest voice. “No, that’s… That’s amazing work that you do. I uh, lost someone once. More of a father figure than my actual dad, and I just wished he could have had something like that — an outlet — in his life.” She chuckled and it came out slightly garbled through the tears now streaming down her face, “And I don’t even know why that’s still so raw. Sorry I’m such a mess.”

“Yeah, well, finding out you’ve had a target on your back for two years will do that to a person,” Nat offered dryly.

“It’s OK to not be OK,” Sam said softly.

She nodded, wiping away the wet remnants from her face and looking at them both with clear eyes. Somewhere deep down she knew that. She’d just have to keep reminding herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like I finally get to add a pairing to this series!
> 
> Thanks so much to everyone who has made it this far.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **The following chapter includes references to child abuse and suicide.**
> 
> If you or anyone you know is struggling, please reach out for help. You can find a list of international crisis intervention hotlines and online resources [linked here](https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres).

**April 5, 2014**

It was Happy who met Dani at LaGuardia early that morning. Or was it late the night before? She was losing track of days and hadn’t managed to get any sleep on the plane. And with no cell phone, she was left to spend more time alone in her head.

Dani would be lying if she said she wasn’t hurt it was Tony waiting for her on the runway, but she tried to push back the selfish thoughts as she neared the car. Happy pulled her into a bearhug before setting her back and taking a good look at her.

“Are you alright?” he asked gently. “Are you hurt?”

She could only shake her head, not wanting her voice to betray her. 

He took the hint.

“OK, kid,” he settled with a fatherly clap on her shoulder. “Let’s go home.”

Dani was thankful Happy was good at filling silences. He chattered away in the driver’s seat as they drove, updating her on everything from Pepper’s busy schedule to his newly established security protocols. It was comforting, keeping her thoughts out of the hole they’d dug themselves into during the plane ride over.

However, by the time they got to Stark Tower, her nerves were completely shot. There was no hope of sleep today. All she wanted was a cup of coffee. A decent one. And maybe after that a shower. Heading straight to the common floor, she set her bag on the floor by the edge of the counter and got to work with the fancy coffee machine Tony imported from who knows where.

She assumed it was his footsteps echoing down the hall even before he decided to pipe up, so she took the opportunity to head him off with his usual conversation starter.

“I know, I’m never here. I’m the worst sister ever,” she muttered flatly, reaching for a mug. “Sorry. Work’s been crazy.”

Classic Stark deflection. He knew it. She knew it. 

But still, there they were.

He strode into the kitchen. It was still too early for most of the rest of the tower to be up, but Tony was alert at this hour on the best of days. Even if his little sister hadn’t been targeted by SHIELD and swept into hiding before she could die in a collapsing building and Helicarrier attack.

“Well, that’s the understatement of the year.”

She could see the wear and tear on his face, in the dark bags and deep-set lines marring his expression. Observant brown eyes were taking in her appearance too, circling as he tried to figure out what exactly she was deflecting from. 

But they both knew.

Her heartbeat picked up, nervous thumping pulsing through her as she realized Tony had just cornered her and was presumably going to dress her down for not telling her about things sooner. Her eyes stayed glued on her mug of coffee, gnawing at her lower lip to try to steady her expression.

“Hey,” Tony said softly.

She flinched as his hand went to her shoulder, immediately regretting as she looked to see his troubled expression. Taking a step back away from her brother, she crossed her arms over her chest as if it would protect her from the impending conversation.

“Are you OK?”

“Not really,” she said, trying to gulp away the tightness in her throat. “But I’m not hurt, if that’s what you’re asking.”

He offered a curt nod and kept his hands to himself, “Barton filled me in on some of it. Starting to piece together the rest with JARVIS and those files Widow released.”

Of course he was already working on decrypting those. She shuddered, the vibration carrying through her hands so hard she had to set down her coffee to play it off as nothing. Tony was watching her like a hawk.

“It’s OK,” he said in a low, cautious tone, like he was talking to a wounded animal. “We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

She didn’t want to, but she needed to know. It was the only missing piece to her equation right now and would dictate how she moved forward. If she could move forward.

“The files… The ones Nat released.”

Tony didn’t say a thing, his expression said it all. Jaw clenched and pulsing, body rigid. He was worried. He was angry, he was furious for her. And in his eyes, she could see he was scared.

She wasn’t certain if it was fear of how she’d react or if it was just _that_ bad. 

Maybe it was both.

“I’m working on it. The encryption on the juicier stuff’s been a bitch, but it looks like the full personnel files won’t take too long.”

“How bad is it? The records?” Dani’s voice was raw at the uncertainty.

She braced herself for the bad news, steadying herself on the counter as she observed his brown eyes dart between hers. Assessing, evaluating the risk of revealing the whole truth.

“Kid, are you sure you want to know right now?” Tony tread carefully. “You could get some sleep, and we can talk about this later.”

Running on no sleep, no caffeine, and no patience, she was about done with him deciding what was best for her.

“I’m not a kid, Tony. This my life. This has fucking implications and I need to know,” she spat out, suddenly frustrating at being treated like fine china. “I spent the whole plane ride just imagining what could be in there, and I need to know what people are going to find out.”

It didn’t help that he was so far removed from being a regular person. 

He admitted to the world that he was Iron Man. Gave out his address on national television to a terrorist. Did god knows what in front of thousands of TV cameras. Regularly toyed with the paparazzi. 

What would he know about wanting to keep things to himself? Wanting to have privacy, secrecy? Not wanting random people from their past trying to sell tell-all books about what you were like as an angsty teenager?

As angry as she was, she knew that the fire burning inside was covering up the real emotion: The fear of having to publicly admit and defend her identity, her choices. She was terrified; just as terrified as she’d been waiting in her D.C. apartment, not knowing if someone had a laser target on her at any given minute.

“From what I’ve got so far, your therapist was working for Pierce. You were sent to him so he could mine you for information, weak points on yourself, me, others,” He massaged his face with his palm, erasing the wrinkles in his forehead for a brief second. “The notes… You were part of a group of people they were targeting.”

“Why?” she asked, but the word sounded like it came out of someone else’s mouth.

“It looks like they were trying to break you down enough and get enough dirt on you in case they needed you… so they could use your _connections_ for favours.”

All those fears and doubts she had about those sessions. That insecurity and apprehension at seemingly inappropriate questions. All that concern that this was beyond typical therapy…

She’d been right? She wasn’t crazy.

Her knees buckled, she was lucky she’d been leaning on the counter. Tony stepped closer to her, arms outstretched in to help her, holding onto her as she struggled to keep herself up.

Forearms leaning against the cool marble counter, eyes closed. Deep breath.

“So… my file. All my sessions… Rumlow?”

Tony nodded, hands grasping her upper arms to steady her, “Seems like it. We’ll know more soon.”

She knew this was coming; she knew she couldn’t keep everything a secret forever.

OK, maybe the therapy sessions could have stayed a secret, you know, as they should have if this was the normal world. Not that she knew what living in a _normal world_ was even like anymore. But everything else, she knew it was all coming out. 

Clint had warned her, but it didn’t make it any less painful. It was still a punch to the proverbial gut that she didn’t even get the illusion of choice, of consent.

“How do you do it?” 

Tony’s eyes narrowed in confusion at Dani’s seemingly random question, “Do what?”

“Go back to life like everything’s fine after things that like happen?” She searched his face for some form of understanding. “After missions. After field work. After everything goes wrong and the whole world knows it.”

She’d barely had a chance to think further than the present in the last week. Her mind had been so focussed on surviving in the moment, just making it to the next step, that she didn’t realize she didn’t have a next step anymore.

What happens now?

He scrutinized her, making sure she was serious and this wasn’t just some underhanded dig at him. When he realized she was genuinely seeking advice, his eyes softened.

“You pretend. You pretend until real life takes over and starts feeling real again. You talk to someone if you need to, don’t if you don’t,” he added, seeing the colour drain from her face at the thought of more therapy. “I don’t think anything I’m going to tell you is going to make it seem any better, kid.”

He was right, it wasn’t. But him being here, supporting her in the kitchen of the building that would be her home again helped a little. Grounded her a little.

“How am I going to face people with all of that out there? Those sessions… I talked about you, about Steve, about Nat, about me. Me before we found each other. Everyone’s going to know everything,” she was so close to tears, feeling in the pressure of a soon-to-be migraine in the back of her eyes. “ _You’re_ going to know,” her voice was barely above a whisper.

His face crumpled, she could see tears hiding among his lower lashes.

“Dan,” his voice crackled. “That doesn’t change anything. I love you, you’re my sister. We love you. No one’s going to think any different of you. You couldn’t have known.”

She tried to let his words sink in, but didn’t get much of a chance to breathe.

“Sir, you asked me to inform you when the SHIELD personnel files were successfully decrypted,” Jarvis’ message hung over like a dark cloud over Dani’s head.

“ _That_ quickly?” Her mouth went dry, nerves assembling in the pit of her stomach.

“Do you want to do this now?” Tony asked her. “We don’t have to.”

“I think I just need to rip off the bandaid,” Dani replied darkly. “Can Pepper be there too? I, uh… I know she might have to deal with the press on this… And don’t want to have to retell anything if I don’t have to.”

“Of course, kid.”

* * *

By the time Tony gathered Pepper into the room Dani was a wreck. So much so that Tony offered her a tumbler full of whisky and it was barely 6 AM. 

Pepper shot him a dirty look, but truthfully, Dani almost took him up on it.

She didn’t notice her leg was bouncing until Pepper’s hand reached over and settled on her knee, giving a comforting squeeze. Tony had already briefed her. Dani could tell by her watchful gaze and the fact she hadn’t even changed out of her robe.

Tony stood at the front of the office and asked Dani, “How do you want to do this?”

She shrugged, not really sure how it would work. 

All Dani knew was that she was about to let go of a lifetime of secrets in front of two of the people she loved most in the world. She suddenly felt like she was in a nightmare; the ones where she was completely naked at the front of class, with no where to hide and everything laid bare.

“Can’t you just pull up the files? I can fill in any blanks.”

A nod, a second glance just to be sure and Tony replied, “JARVIS, do as the lady says. All the files including Dani.”

The screens lit up with walls of paperwork, hundreds of different file names. Some of it was just patient records she signed off on, which Tony eliminated with a couple swipes. Some attendance records, those were whisked away too. And then they stumbled on her employee file.

The emergency contact at the top of the form was Tony, below a note that Fury had signed off on them working together on the Avengers Initiative without a fear of conflict of interest. The background check was near the end of the document, but made up the bulk of the dossier.

It didn’t take long for Tony to dig into the report.

“Jesus, Dani,” Tony growled, swiping through a set of over-exposed photos from her days in the mid-west. “You were, what like 8?”

“Eleven,” she replied, not even needing to see the photos to know what he was talking about.

Gaunt memories of her past self filled the frames of the 4x6’s that were hastily scanned, back from the pre-digital photography era. She could see how he’d misjudged her age — one meal a day would do that to someone. Never mind the cigarette burns, the bruises, the stitches and scars that still hid under her hairline. 

All remnants of what she’d tried so hard to leave behind.

“Why didn’t this come up before?” Tony’s voice rung out hollow as he stared at the screens in front of him. He didn’t say it, but Dani knew he meant in his and Pepper’s own digging into her past.

“It was never filed as a formal police report. I assume SHIELD has back channels for dropped and misfiled cases,” Dani answered in too level of a voice.

Pepper’s hand stayed at her knee, tensing as she read through the reports. Her other hand covered her mouth, eyes wide and glancing over at her reaction every few minutes. Dani was too busy searching the screens to watch her horrified expressions, trying to see if what she was worried about would be there.

The brunette watched Tony swipe away some text to reveal a note in her file about her suicide attempt and her heart stopped, eyes locked to Tony’s expression as she tried to gauge his reaction. 

The crease between his eyebrows deepened as he mouthed the date at the top of the intake form and realized breathlessly aloud, “Your birthday.” 

She could have used the drink he offered.

“Yeah,” she was ashamed, face hot as she cracked her knuckles out of nervousness. “I.. I was seventeen, and I couldn’t take it anymore. My, uh…” her tongue finding it hard to cooperate at the thought of having to explain. “My mom wasn’t great, but her choice in partners… Well, you saw the photos.”

Pepper reached over to rub Dani’s arm, lower lip already trembling. Dani tried to look anywhere but their expressions, fearful of breaking down before she could explain.

They deserved an explanation.

“There was one, Henry, he was a _good_ man,” she sniffed. “Taught me how to shoot, how to defend myself really, even after my mom left him.” The tears were back in full force, the pressure behind her eyes getting to be too much to focus. “He died — he killed himself — because he saved me. Couldn’t live with what he did, and… I didn’t want to either when I found out he was gone.”

A strangled sob escaped her mouth, and Tony crossed the room to bring her into his arms. Pepper watched from her seat, tears threatening to fall from her own eyes as she watched the siblings’ embrace.

“I just don’t want people thinking I’m weak, using this as tabloid fodder… or using it against you guys,” Dani’s voice was muffled as she tried to explain why she was dumping this on them.

The last thing she wanted to do was let down Tony and Pepper. They were the only family she had left, and she was terrified to lose them. That fear of being seen as a failure in their eyes, that sting of rejection. She’d do anything, say anything to never have to experience that.

“Hey, you’re _not weak_ ,” Tony asserted resolutely. “You went through hell, Dani — things that no kid should have to go through — and you came out of it. That’s the important part, you kept going.”

The thumping of Tony’s racing heart was just under her ear, bringing her back down into the room from wherever her mind had drifted. Pepper gently squeezed her forearm as she settled back into her seat, still watching the pair carefully.

“Dani, do you want to take a break?” Pepper’s soft voice chimed in.

Rubbing her clammy palms against her pant legs, Dani tried to get herself back to baseline. Putting on her bravest face, she knew what she needed to do. 

She had to get through this.

Dani shook her head, not wanting the fear of the unknown to hang over her head any longer. 

It only took one more swipe for Tony to land on the psychiatrist’s notes. Detailed session notes indicated hesitation as certain questions, resistance to talking about her childhood. Notes about her surprising performance at the shooting range questioned her training.

The file even included details from things that happened outside of sessions, like Clint’s attack on Rumlow, and Steve requesting to walk her off the floor at her last evaluation.

There had clearly been eyes and ears everywhere.

“This is…” Pepper trailed off, mouth open as she read through. “What in the holy hell is this?”

There was one short note at the end of the file that Tony seemed stuck on. Eyes wide, he stared at it long enough for Dani to follow his gaze. Just two words under the header ‘Insight’ in the same scrawl as the rest of the notes, “Termination approved.”

“They were going to fire me?” Dani’s voice rang out in confusion.

If they had approved her resignation when she was still going to SHIELD-appointed therapy, why would they have let her move to D.C.?

Tony looked pale, and she wasn’t even sure if he’d heard her over the gears clearly turning inside his head. Something wasn’t sitting right with him. 

Pepper and Dani looked at him for an explanation, anything.

“Project Insight was the Helicarriers Cap and the team destroyed. The ones that were going to take out millions of pre-determined targets. It looks like you were on the list.”

The sound of a pin dropping would have been deafening in that moment. The split second after the words left his mouth, when it all sank in and settled. It was heavy, too heavy for Dani to process, the threat too far removed from reality to be considered anything but something out of a trashy sci-fi paperback. 

She had been slated to die. Yesterday. 

She would have been dead if it wasn’t for Steve, Nat and Sam.

There were no tears left inside Dani, there was no rage in her, there wasn’t even fear. The only thing left was just a silent acceptance that she had gotten herself in far too deep to get out of this scot-free.

She hadn’t known it then, but she sure as hell knew it now.

She couldn’t just be _Danielle Fisher_ anymore. She was Tony’s sister, and she was going to have to face the consequences of that truth.

Swiping her palms against her cheeks for the umpteenth time in the last week, she got a good look at her brother across the room, mouth in a firm line, body language rigid. Even through the still-wet tracks on his cheeks, she could tell he was angry, pacing back and forth in front of the projected files.

“Tony,” Dani asked quietly. “You look like you’re going to explode. What is it?”

Those fierce brown eyes had a fire she knew well.

“It isn’t right. It shouldn’t have been you. Your whole life is out there for the whole world to see now, just because you believed in an organization that lied to you. It should have been _us_ — The Avengers, Pierce, Fury — if anyone wants transparency,” he said it like it was a dirty word. “They shouldn’t have brought you into this. _I_ shouldn’t have brought you into this.”

He turned away from her, hands over eyes in an effort to focus, trying to block out the intrusive thoughts. She knew, she did it too. 

He added quietly, “It’s not your fault you’re related to me.”

It felt like her chest ripped in two in that moment; her heart breaking at his words. The fact that he would think for even one minute that she regretted being part of his family felt like a massive blow.

“You know that’s not what I’m afraid of putting out there, right?” she asked in her most level voice, looking between Pepper’s shining eyes and his distraught form.

His voice cracked and crumbled as he replied, “But it’s what made you a target.”

Dani cleared her throat, trying to will away the crushing feeling in her lungs as her brother lay raw in front of her. 

It wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t think that this was just his fault.

Wobbling legs carried her over to him. Putting her hands on his shoulders, he wouldn’t meet her eyes, but she was going to give him a piece of her mind anyway.

“Working for SHIELD made me a target, being friends with Steve made me a target. Tony, if all the things that made me happy in life made me a target, I’d just accept it.” She added in a smaller voice, “I’d have to, because all of those things make my life worth living.”

Dani could see the tears streaking down his cheeks as he looked up at her.

The dam broke. 

Tony carefully enveloped his sister as she sobbed into his chest. The heaving breaths gave way to hiccups as Tony held her close and gently rubbed her back, reaching a hand out to Pepper to join them.

The three sat in that office for a long time, mostly in silence as the week’s events settled in their brains. Tony did end up breaking out the whisky, passing the two women glasses of their own.

Not so much to drown their sorrows, but in a darker sense, toast to being alive.

They each knew in their own way that the coming weeks wouldn’t be easy. None of them were foolish enough to think this would all just blow over as the sun rose. No, this would have consequences that they wouldn’t be able to dream up.

But at least the playing field was a little more level now.

Even if it hurt like a bitch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof. That was a hard chapter to write. It was another finicky one that I've spent the last week editing and re-editing.
> 
> Next chapter on Tuesday. Only two more left before we start the next part of this series.
> 
> If you or anyone you know is struggling, please reach out for help. You can find a list of international crisis intervention hotlines and online resources [linked here](https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres).


	13. Chapter 13

**May 5, 2014**

“So, about your car…”

It was still morning when Clint Barton’s head popped through her front door. JARVIS seemingly let him in without issue, even though Dani was somewhat sure by the end of this conversation she’d want to (jokingly) revoke that privilege.

They’d been texting intermittently over the past month with the new phone Tony had gifted her, checking in when they could. But she was overjoyed that he was finally keeping up his end of the promise made in the hospital parking lot, even if he was about to break bad news.

It couldn’t be any worse than the past few weeks’ worth of bad news, after all.

“Clint, don’t you dare start your first conversation back with me by telling me you wrecked my car,” Dani glared at him, but couldn’t help her face from breaking into a smile.

“But, hear me out,” he strode across the room to meet her, dropping his bag at the door. “What if hypothetically speaking, I did that _but then_ I did this,” he gently tilted her chin up with his fingers, capturing her lips in a sweet kiss.

Come to think of it, she didn’t care about the car. At all.

She didn’t have much use for one in the city and had frankly almost forgotten what it was like to have one after a month back. Her faux annoyance was worth it for the banter, and the apologetic kiss, distracting them both from the darker things afoot.

She snaked her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her. The ease and relief clear on both of their faces as they took each other in.

“I missed you,” she sighed, nuzzling into his neck. “But you’re not entirely forgiven if you did actually destroy my car.”

“But Dani!” he whined playfully, sinking into the embrace.

The cup of coffee she has been drinking was long forgotten on the counter. They were way too absorbed in each other to notice, trying to reacquaint themselves. She ran her hands down his back and up his sides, giving him a once-over as her eyes made it back up to his very tired looking face.

“Making sure I’m still in one piece?” He teased with a grin.

It was like nothing had changed between them, it was nice. It was familiar. Their connection, the way he felt under her hands, so much so that she lost herself in her usual routine with him. It had been weird to share that beautiful moment with him in the parking lot, followed by four weeks of hell via the press and her own demons alone.

The last month had been made stranger by the fact that she didn’t know what to do with herself. How does one look for a job after their last one was revealed to be a terrorist organization? Never mind the fact that any time she left the tower she’d wind up on some trashy celebrity news website…

“Force of habit,” she admitted bashfully, biting her lower lip.

His arms wound themselves tighter around her waist, chest to chest as he laid a gentle peck on her neck. “I like that you care,” he said softly. “I just wish you wouldn’t worry.”

“Worry? About you?” She mused noncommittally as his longer than usual scruff tickled the nape of her neck.

“Tony said you haven’t left the tower at all, Dan,” his voice sounded a little more serious. “Should _I_ be worried about _you_?”

She wasn’t surprised Tony had been filling him or Nat in at what went on at the tower. Tony had been looped in on whatever they were working on post-D.C., after all. It was no secret they’d been in close contact. 

And they both knew her tendency to hole herself in her space and hide from her feelings. 

But it was just so easy in New York; everything she needed could be delivered, she felt safe under JARVIS’s watchful ‘eyes’ and she had access to most of the common floors with gyms and private rooms.

It wasn’t entirely about the fall-out of the information dump; Dani just didn’t really feel ready yet.

To the general public, the gravity of the situation wasn’t fully known. Information was slow, details were scarce, and with so many project names, redactions, and obscure internal references, even if they did decrypt some of the bigger bombshells, they’ll still have to decode the content.

The employee files, on the other hand…

It had taken about a week for the news of Tony Stark’s illegitimate sister to make the news rounds. She’d worked with Pepper and the Stark Industries PR team to craft a response focussing on respecting her privacy during this difficult time. Like that would ever happen.

Most of the Wikileaks-level documents from the fall of SHIELD were hard to encrypt, making what small morsels of information did leak even more tantalizing to the press.

Of course the tabloids ran with it, putting together that newspaper sighting of her and Steve in D.C. to concoct some romance narrative that poor Pepper had to deal with publicly. It was hard not to feel like they were kicking her while she was down every time a news story with archival footage of her in the background made the rounds. Between Harlem, the Incident, and Malibu, they had a lot to work with.

Internally, things weren’t much better. 

After a long talk with Tony, Dani had convinced him to index her files through JARVIS, making them accessible as they tried to hunt down any existing Hydra hold-outs — including her former psychiatrist, who was still unaccounted for. But there were still a lot of higher level files that were taking ages to get ahold and make any sense of.

Tony was probably sleeping less than ever, too preoccupied with keeping everyone safe to come up for air most days. She’d spent a lot of time in the lab with him, just keeping him company as he puzzled through things.

“Tony’s one to talk,” she huffed. “Would _you_ be OK after all that?”

“No,” he admitted. “Probably not.”

Giving up on interrogation, he backed her onto the couch, sprawling into the soft cushions and entangling their limbs. The droop in his eyelids were one of the many visible signs of his tiredness, and Dani was happy to just lie there beside him, feeling his chest rise and fall underneath her head.

“How did everything go, wherever you were?”

Fingers playing with her hair, all she could feel was the rumbling of his pensive hum.

“A lot of recon, managed to find some stragglers,” he answered vaguely. “Brought Sam over — Tony set up a suite for him in the Tower so he can have a place to stay in between trips.”

That was news to her. 

“I guess he’s going full speed ahead with Avengers Tower,” she mused.

While Steve had a standing residence, she hadn’t seen him around much since he’d gotten out of the hospital. Tony had filled her in on the Winter Soldier file, something Steve had immersed himself in, pursuing any lead he could.

Steve was different since he came back, more reserved than usual, but she couldn’t blame him. His childhood best friend had just resurfaced as a legendary mercenary after being presumed dead for 70 years — there’s no handbook on how to handle something like that. Couple that with the fact the media was speculating about everything from his love life to where he shopped in the city and Dani probably would keep more to herself too.

A buzz at Dani’s side sent Clint’s eyes wide open as he scrambled to find his phone.

“Aw, damn it. I told Sam I’d try to convince you to go out for lunch with him and Cap,” he said in a disappointed tone that expressed his immediate regret at leaving the comfort of the couch.

“Are you going to fall asleep in your food if we go?” She joked.

He thought about it for a second before his stomach growled.

“I’m actually starving,” he admitted guiltily, looking at the clock on his phone. “You?”

“I could eat.”

It was a lie. Dani wasn’t hungry at all, and didn’t really want to leave the tower, but she also wasn’t about to let Clint go hungry. She promptly untangled herself from Clint and got changed in her room, leaving the archer to sent a message to Sam to see if he was good to go.

“Steve says there’s a deli not far from here that’s discreet,” Clint’s voice drifted into her room. “They have a back room he’s called ahead for.”

While she knew security concerns were on everyone’s mind, it made her feel better to hear it out loud. And safer to know she’d have Sam and two Avengers at her side.

“Sounds good.”

And it did. The idea of being out in public, especially with Steve, wasn’t something she wanted to deal with alone. Having Sam and Clint as a buffer assuaged her guilt, knowing they were both trying to get their friends out of the tower for a bit, out of their heads. 

She finished getting ready to find Clint standing by the front door, swinging his car keys in his hands.

“Mind if I leave my bag?” Clint nudged the lump on the floor with his foot.

“Nah. By the looks of you, you’ll be passed out here long before you make it home,” she said with a grin.

The restaurant was only a few minutes away, conveniently not too far from parking. She hated that she was now thinking about how to spend as little time on street level as possible. 

Sam and Steve were already waiting for them at the back entrance. Some handshakes, a couple hugs and some pleasantries later, they were led inside to a cozy back sitting area.

It was almost comedic trying to fit the four of them into a booth. The shuffling, the whining, the giggles ensued as they tried to slide in. They ended up giving up and taking a table at the center of the room instead, not wanting to sit shoulder to shoulder for the entire meal.

“So, Stark’s sister, huh? He definitely struck me as an only child,” the goofy smile punctuated Sam’s goodnatured joke and she couldn’t help but smile back.

She could only laugh at his choice of intro, “Sorry, D.C. just didn’t seem like the right time to mention how I fit into this larger mess.”

“Hey, it’s all good,” Sam replied kindly. “Does he know about…?”

Steve shot Sam a confused look, eyes darting between Clint and Dani. The brunette looked at Clint, silently asking if he’d told either of them, who shrugged and shook his head in reply. 

It almost looked like Steve was going to refute Sam’s assessment, so Dani stepped in to explain without actually answering, “I don’t know if Tony knows what day of the week it is anymore, never mind anything _outside_ his lab.”

Steve’s expression settled into a smile, but he didn’t say anything.

Dani was almost grateful. 

She didn’t need to be dropping anymore bombshells, and she didn’t really feel like being coddled. The pair across from her seemed to get the hint and moved on from the line of inquiry.

“Are you going to be in town long?”

“I’m following up on some more leads next week,” Sam explained. “But Tony’s already threatened me with homelessness if I don’t make it back for his birthday party at the end of the month.”

“Yeah, that’ll happen,” Steve concurred with a knowing smirk. “He’s big on parties.”

“I tried to talk him out of it,” Dani griped. “I still feel like it’s too soon…”

Her eyes landed hesitantly on Steve who thankfully didn’t look offended at the idea.

“I dunno,” the blond mused thoughtfully. “It’s always nice to get the team together. I hear he even managed to convince Natasha to come for the night.”

“Has anyone heard from her at all?” Dani asked the table. 

She sure hadn’t.

“Bits and pieces,” Clint offered. “She has a lot to sort out after D.C.”

“So, what’s next for you, Dani?” Steve asked, elbows settling on the table as he leaned closer.

“That’s the million dollar question,” she chuckled, but no smile reached her eyes. “Thinking about setting up my own practice. Not sure I’d really be able to find a company to take me in after all that.”

“I’m surprised Tony didn’t offer to hire you on at the tower,” Sam remarked with raised brows.

“He did, but he already has a full set of staff,” Dani explained. “I don’t want to just be on the payroll. I’m getting restless, honestly.”

“Have you considered volunteering?”

In truth, the thought had occurred to her. She was a little nervous about having a full-on meltdown if she stepped into a VA clinic, but now that Sam was bringing it up, the option seemed a little more approachable.

“Have any connections out here that’d be willing to take in an ex-SHIELD doc?” She asked with a grin.

He returned her smile with his own, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Lunch was delicious. And the outing was worth it for the shocked expression of the poor waitress slinging Steve’s three sandwiches alone. 

By the time they made it back to her suite, bellies full and in even better moods, Clint could barely keep his eyes open. Even Dani was on the verge of a food coma. They settled on an afternoon nap, heading to her room, so they wouldn’t be cramped on the couch.

“When did you get this?” Clint asked as he picked up the silver frame on her nightstand.

In truth, she’d forgotten she’d put it there. A black and white version of her spy friend’s stealthy shot of them dancing on New Years Eve was covered in fingerprints. It was well-loved, often admired and showcased one of her favourite memories of her friends.

“Nat gave it to me for Secret Santa last year,” Dani replied softly. “It was one of the only things I brought back from D.C. with me.”

Setting the photo down he lay down on the bed with her and pulled her head against his chest.

“That was a good night,” Clint said softly. “You were stunning.”

“I was so bruised and so sore,” she chuckled in remembrance. “I can’t believe I managed to get to sleep on that lumpy couch of yours.”

She could feel him laugh at the memory, and after a beat of silence, he admitted, “I almost kissed you that night.”

Her eyebrows shot up into her hairline, “Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t want to scare you off,” he admitted. “I knew you were in a weird position because of work and I didn’t want to make things at SHIELD worse for you. Plus, you know, you and your family had almost died the week before.”

She honed in on the sound of his heartbeat, eyes closed as she listened to him talk. The idea that he had wanted this too, even then, was comforting. But the idea of making this permanent, of making it public, of taking things further, still scared her slightly. Especially when there were so many eyes on her right now.

But it was a conversation, an adult conversation, that they’d have to have eventually.

“I guess at some point we should talk about what ‘us’ means,” she mumbled.

Sensing her hesitation, he planted a kiss in her hair, “We’ve got time to figure it out. I just got back, and I’m sure we’ll both be busy soon. This… even just this is nice. We can take it as slow as you want.”

Clint’s words set the little voice at the back of her head at ease. The only that told her that he had changed his mind, or was going to, when he realized who she really was. It was hard for her, baring herself like this to someone, being honest about her wants and needs. As much as she wanted to dive headfirst into _everything_ with this beautiful man in her bed, she didn’t think it was right to herself or him to put on the facade that everything was OK.

She had some work to do on herself before she could fully let someone in like that. It was going to take a lot of trust, something she was in short supply of in general. But she’d get there.

“Thank you,” she replied softly, eyes shining in the dim light. “I uh, I really missed this.”

Strong arms pulled her closer as he whispered, “Me too.”

They were silent for a while, but Dani could tell Clint wasn’t asleep. Not wanting to leave things on a sappy note, she decided to ask the question she’d be wondering all day.

“So, what exactly _did_ happen to my car?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter left!
> 
> The next update will have two chapters: the last chapter of this work and the first chapter of the next. I'm aiming for Thursday or Friday for the update.
> 
> Behind the scenes: I'm working on a longer (~7k ish) Steve/OFC one-shot. After that I'd like to try my hands at a Bruce or Sam one-shot. And I'm bound to add a Clint/OFC or two to my to-do lists.


	14. Chapter 14

**May 29, 2014**

As usual, Tony Stark had done _way_ too much.

The billionaire was already weaving through the crowd littered with Avengers, Stark Industries employees and their families, shaking hands and chatting. It had been almost two months since the Triskelion came toppling down into the Potomac, and while Dani tried to convince him it was too soon to celebrate, her brother had other plans. 

It was high time, according to Tony, for something to everyone together. So, never one to shy away from a party, he got to work — or rather, his employees did — and pulled it off. There were streamers, balloons, an open bar and tables full of food scattered amongst the packed restaurant.

The only thing missing was his sister.

Dani was still at the Tower in her own suite, standing in front of a full-length mirror as Nat zipped her into her dress. The bed behind her was a mess of several garments Pepper had picked out last week, already way more than the doctor had asked for. Her floor was similarly arranged, a half dozen shoe boxes were in various states at the foot of her bed.

“I’m glad you went with cream,” the redhead mused, eyeing her up and down in consideration of some bigger Natasha scheme, Dani was sure of it. She tapped her finger against the wine glass in her hand. “It’ll be easier for me to spot you as you try to sneak off.”

There it was.

The brunette shot her a look and scoffed, “Honestly, Nat. Who would I be sneaking off with?”

The redhead shrugged and sarcastically mused, “I wonder.”

Dani chuckled, turning back to the mirror to examine the dress. Well, not just the dress, but herself in it. She was already a few glasses of champagne in and it had been a while since she’d worn something this form-fitting that wasn’t a SHIELD uniform. She tousled her hair, trying to get it to look right. Her make-up was also already done, camera-ready face painted on, but she checked to make sure it was still in place anyway. She was adjusting the shoulder straps of the dress when Nat came up behind her, sensing her sudden insecurity.

“Stop fussing. It’s perfect,” she said lowly, resting her chin on Dani's shoulder. “It’s a party; you’re allowed to wear a ridiculously expensive dress and enjoy it. Especially if Tony Stark is paying for it.”

They both chuckled.

“Get your shoes on, we should probably head over there,” Nat said, staring at her phone. “I think someone’s getting antsy.”

“Wouldn’t want to keep Tony waiting,” she drawled in reply before grabbing her clutch, filled with only a back up of her lipstick and a small tube of concealer. 

“We both know this party is half for you too,” Nat shot back.

With a roll of her eyes she conceded, her friend wasn’t wrong. As much as she wished Tony would just forget her birthday existed so close to his own, there were bound to be some belated wishes from attendees.

She slipped on a pair of bronze glitter Jimmy Choos, a grad gift from Pepper way back in the day — she remembered the strawberry blonde having to talk Tony down from a luxury vehicle purchase— and the pair were off to the restaurant. The car was already waiting out in front of the doors, weaving them across town to another skyscraper.

“Tony got sick of post-party clean-up, huh?” Nat asked, watching the building zip by the window.

“Mostly sick of people trying to snoop around the tower after the SHIELD files dropped,” Dani clarified. “Not that JARVIS would let them, but he didn’t want to have to worry about security alerts pinging to his phone all night.”

The driver opened the door for them, signalling they’d arrived. The pair slipped into the building and beelined to the elevator. They were yin and yang, side by side. Nat was similarly decked out in a slinky black cocktail dress beside her, tilting a champagne flute in her hand all the way back as she drained it. 

She hadn’t even seen where she’d picked it up.

In one swift motion, Dani watched as she gracefully took a step off the elevator and she set the empty glass on the nearest waiter’s tray, before grabbing two more. She handed her one and gave her a wink.

“Cheers,” the redhead said to the brunette over the loud music, clinking the lips of their glasses and each taking a sip.

“Dani!” Tony was walking toward the pair with open arms, and Dani could see heads turning. 

Natasha somehow slipped into the crowd before he could make his way to them, avoiding the scene. 

Typical.

Tony wrapped an arm around his sister. She was already warm, not just from the alcohol, and she was unsure if people would be able to tell through her makeup. Looking at her brother, she spotted both the telltale rouge cheeks that came with a buzz.

“Happy birthday,” she said, kissing him on the cheek as she pulled him in for a hug.

He stared at her for a bit, and she wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or if he was just happy to see her outside the tower, but she didn’t say anything.

“I won’t hold you up. Go have fun, kid,” he said finally, playfully nudging her out of his arms and crossing the room to greet a group of people.

Someone wrapped their arms over Dani’s shoulders, familiar toned forearms just below her chin. She leaned into the warmth and turned to come nose to nose with the blue eyes of Clint Barton, wearing the full smile she remembered. 

This was a typical sight for her; she was just glad it wasn’t how it was before the Triskelion — with her back on the mat during combat training, usually tired, aching, and hating Clint at this point.

Actually, who was she kidding? She kind of missed their practice sessions.

“Who are you and what have you done with Dr. Fisher?” he crooned, swaying slightly from side to side and giving her a good look. 

It was respectful admiration; she could see the glint in his eye and a flush on his cheeks. Right, everyone here was probably already a little tipsy, she realized. Even she was feeling a little more fluid than usual, the beat of the background music had her subconsciously moving her hips to the rhythm.

“You look amazing, Dani.” Her eyes dropped to the floor in embarrassment, trying to avoid his gaze. Clint merely tightened his hold, pulling her into a hug. She melted into his grip. “I don’t want to keep you,” he said in her ear, giving her goosebumps. “But I wanted to be the first to tell you.”

He let her go, flashed her a toothy grin and disappeared into the crowd just like Nat had.

Of course, spies.

Heart still fluttering slightly at the loss of contact, a voice broke her out of her thoughts.

“It’s nice to see you out and about,” Bruce Banner was standing in front of her, wavy hair splayed behind his ears, smiling. “You look good.”

She knew he didn’t mean the dress. She carefully watched his eyes follow hers as she looked for his usual signs of fatigue and drain. She didn’t find any, leaving a small smile on her face.

“Likewise. You look well-rested.” 

“Don’t sound so surprised.”

The Doctor had been spending a lot of time at Tony’s lab the past month. It was nice having someone to be a buffer between her and Tony. They’d shared a few lunches here and there, him going over his notes and her catching up on her emails lazily. It had been nice getting him away from his work, learning about his time around the world.

He’d seemed more at ease around the tower now.

“The media have quieted down a bit,” Bruce said knowingly. “How have you been feeling?”

“A little cooped up,” she admitted. “Think I might have to start running again.”

Bruce grinned, “I’m sure Sam would appreciate a running buddy who doesn’t lap him.”

A chuckle escaped, “I’ll have to bring it up. I’m sure Tony wouldn’t let me go without an escort.”

As if on cue, she spotted Tony watching their conversation intently. Avoiding the urge to roll her eyes, she realized she needed a refill. She pulled away from Bruce with a smile, patting his shoulder. 

Spotting a clear path to the bar, she tried to make like the spies and sink into the crowd. Leaning against the bar, elbows out, she ordered a gin and tonic. Taking a look around the room, she felt elated, seeing people dancing, talking, laughing.

This was what they all needed: a way to blow off steam.

She was too busy enjoying the scene to notice the blond sidling up beside her, catching her in the lightest touch above the waist.

“What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?” Steve had clearly been catching up on his pop culture references. 

She took in his megawatt smile, trying to shoot it right back at him. It was nice to see him so happy — she felt like it’d been a while since she’d last seen Steve out of his shell. And he didn’t even have the alcohol excuse. 

It was contagious, that smiling Steve she’d known and met on that fateful day with Coulson, just more confident.

“Careful, Captain. TMZ would be all over us with a line like that,” she giggled, knowing it was all in good fun. “Are you having a good time?” 

She shifted to leaning her back against the bar as the bartender worked on her drink.

“Well, sometimes I feel like Stark’s just showing me off, but I’m sure you know the feeling,” he replied. “You?”

She looked back over the room, “I’m just happy we could all get together under happier circumstances.”

Her tone was bittersweet and he noticed, reaching an arm across the bar, ghosting past her shoulders. She could see the bartender behind her finishing up with her drink and she was a little sad she’d have to finish up this moment.

“Happy belated, Dani. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to say it on the day,” She could tell the apology covered more than just the birthday wishes. “Here’s to many more.”

In one smooth action, she turned to grab her drink off the bar, lifted her glass in salute, took a sip and patted his shoulder.

“Thank you, Steve,” she replied into his ear, trying her hardest to keep her voice steady.

Across the room, she eyed a crowd gathered around Tony. But, before she could make it there, someone took her hand and spun her around, leading to someone whistling in the background.

“Have you boys seen this girl?” 

Speak of the devil.

Nat showed her off to the crowd in true Vanna White style. Dani stepped out of the twirl and looked around to see Sam, Clint and a group of men — likely military buddies — huddled around as the redhead stood off to the side with her arm still outstretched. 

Sam waggled his fingers at her in a wave, signature smile in full force as Clint elbowed him. She couldn’t help but snicker at the exchange. 

As much as they gave each other shit, Dani was thankful to have Nat in her life. She was there for her when she had no one else to open up to her. Hell, she wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for what she and the team did in D.C. Steve, Sam, Nat _and_ Clint. 

Taking a moment to look around the room, Dani stared at her friends, eyes a little glassy, and gave her a bashful smile. She stopped herself before the tears could sprout, she couldn’t do that at this beautiful party.

Deep breaths.

Yep, definitely the alcohol thinking, she decided. 

She was starting to get sappy, and she knew it.

“Gentlemen,” a loud voice interrupted Dani’s focus on keeping the happy tears at bay. “Are these boys giving you grief, doctor?” Colonel Rhodes joined the crowd with a grin.

“Rhodey!” She gave him a half hug, trying not to spill her drink. “S.O.S.,” she added in a dramatic whisper.

She stumbled a little as he grabbed her free hand and swept her into a bit of a dance. Her drink holding hand leaned on his shoulder and dangled behind his head. He was pretty good, easily leading her across the dance floor with a bit of flourish.

“I’m glad to see that smile back on your face,” he said, suddenly sounding very fatherly. 

“Don’t get sentimental on me,” she warned him. “This is a very expensive face that I don’t want to cry off right now.”

He smiled letting go of her hand and walking her toward the floor to ceiling windows, “Well, then I’ll just say happy belated birthday.”

She gave him a small nod, unable to stop herself from smiling even as he walked back into the crowd. Staring out into the cityscape below, she realized her cheeks were sore. There were much worse problems to have, she thought to herself, watching the flow of traffic down below.

His arms wound tightly around her and with a smirk he interlocked his arms at her waist.

“Oh, we are _so_ not practicing hold escapes in formalwear,” Dani groaned, shimmying around in his grasp to face him.

He dropped his hands to her waist and stared at her with those clear blue eyes. He didn’t have to say a word, it was written all over his face how much he wanted to lean in and close the gap.

But there were so many watchful eyes.

“Don’t you two look cozy,” Natasha slid herself on Dani’s other side, as if on queue.

And with that, it was back to just the three of them again.

The rest of the room started to fade away as they sat in comfortable silence and let her recharge. As much as she loved having everyone around, being thrown from person to person was hard on the normally reserved Doctor.

“Are we boring you over there?” Tony’s voice brought her back down to earth.

“I thought you were too busy showing Steve off like a prized show pony to notice.”

Dani shot her brother a look and the two spies took that moment to beeline to the other side of the room. 

Great. So much for having her back.

“You enjoying yourself, kid?” He was in big brother mode, she could tell just by the fact he didn’t try to come back at her with a zinger. 

If he was going to be serious about this whole feeling sharing thing, two could play at that game.

“I’m actually really happy,” she said softly.

“Don’t sound so convincing,” he replied as he stared at her in disbelief.

“I am,” she reiterated, eyes looking fiercely into his own. “I’m really thankful.”

She could feel her chin wobble a little, eyes water. Tony’s looked a little heavy as he broke off eye contact.

“OK, you’re cut off,” he said finally, jokingly reaching for her glass. “Way too mushy for me.”

She laughed, trying to cover her wiping a couple stray tears as she clapped him on the back.

“You found her!”

Pepper waded through the crowd, holding a martini in one hand and her golden dress in the other. Her face was slightly flush, pink tinged cheeks contrasted by soft curls framing the side of her face.

“Dani,” she called warmly, pulling her into a hug. “I thought I’d never find you.”

The brunette laughed, “I got passed around a lot.”

“Well, you look beautiful. That was my favourite dress,” the strawberry blonde mused as she took a good look at her. “I hope Tony isn’t causing too much trouble for you?”

“Nah, nothing I can’t handle,” she quipped. “Thank you, Pepper. For tonight, for everything.”

She kissed Dani on the cheek and said, “You’re family,” as if it explained everything in the world. “Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask…” 

Oh no, Pepper and alcohol meant awkward questions. 

“You and Clint, huh?”

“Hm?” she tried to play it off as a casual mishear, but her tone was a little strangled.

“How long have you two been…?”

She spluttered, nearly spitting out her drink as her face heated up to atomic levels, “Uh…!”

Pepper hummed and gave her a look, “You’ve just been so happy lately. _Glowing_ , really. And I know it’s not my place, but…”

“Your place to what, dear?” Tony slunk in behind her, tuning back into the conversations as he wrapped an arm at her waist and stared at his sister curiously.

“Oh, just girl stuff,” Pepper said with a wink.

She spotted Clint in the crowd over Pepper’s shoulder and made eye contact, mouthing the words “Save me,” across the room. He signed back across the dance floor with a smirk, and —as rusty as her ASL was— it only took her a few seconds to process it as, “You’re on your own.”

She shot him a playful glare and tried to figure her own way out.

“Do you know where the bathroom is?” She asked abruptly, trying her best to make it seem like an honest request.

“Back and around the corner,” Pepper replied, motioning behind her.

Dani thanked her and waded through the crowd toward the dim narrow hallway, shooting smiles to friends and familiar faces along the way. It was nice to be able to breathe, and in the empty, quiet space Dani realized just how packed the main room was and just how overheated she was getting.

Damn Pepper and her perceptiveness.

She headed straight to the sink, sprinkling water on her neck and chest in an attempt to cool herself down. From the corner of her eye, she watched in the mirror as the bathroom door slammed shut behind her. The scrape of the latch as it was locked. 

She jolted to meet the sound, facing the man in the suit standing between her and the exit, heart thumping against her ribs.

“I’ve been looking forward to this,” he growled and before she could scream for help, his hand was around her neck.

**[End of work]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to post this early because tomorrow’s site maintenance might affect email notifications. 
> 
> This story also doesn’t end here; I’ve already uploaded the first chapter of the next part, so be sure to following the link below to read it! Don’t worry, I wouldn’t _actually_ leave it on that kind of a cliffhanger.
> 
> Thanks again for all of your incredible support throughout this series. I appreciate every read, every comment, every subscriber, and every bookmark more than you could know.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you so much for following along. 
> 
> All comments and kudos are loved and cherished.  
> You can also find me on [tumblr](https://pasmonblog.tumblr.com/), where I post a lot of comic book content, work updates, and behind-the-scenes commentary.


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